Sugar Tongs

Artist/Maker
Eastman, Moses
Place Made
Savannah Georgia United States of America
Date Made
1828-1850
Medium
silver
Dimensions
LOA: 6 5/8″
Accession Number
5726.7
Description
DESCRIPTION: Silver sugar tongs with heavily shaped arms and shoulders. Cast shell decorations are applied to faces of both arms and the die-struck tips are in the form of shells.

MARK: Struck on inside of arm with an intaglio “M•EASTMAN” mark in a rectangular reserve.

MAKER: Moses Eastman was born in Concord, New Hampshire on 17 June 1794. About 1820 he moved to Savannah, Georgia and joined the partnership of J. Penfield & Co. with Josiah Penfield (1785-1828) and Frederick Marquand (1799-1882). The firm was dissolved in 1828 and Eastman worked under his own name, referring to himself in advertisements as “M. Eastman; surviving partner and succesor to the late firm of J. Penfield & Co.” In 1834 he married New Jersey native Elizabeth Tuthill (1799-1883) in Savannah. His business apparently continued operations after Eastman’s 1850 death but was eventually sold to George M. Griffen, who had worked for Eastman as a watchmaker. Eastman is buried in his New Hampshire hometown and with his wife Elizabeth Tuthill, who died in Madison, New Jersey. See George Barton Cutten, “The Silversmiths of Georgia” (Savannah, GA: Pigeonhole Press, 1958) and gravestone for Moses and Elizabeth Eastman, Pine Grove Cemetery, East Concord, Merrimack Co., NH (available online: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=104469889&PIpi=74598252 [accessed 20 September 2017]).

FORM: Sugar tongs were first introduced during the second quarter of the eighteenth century and were often shaped like scissors joined with a flat hinge. By the end of the century and into the next, however, tongs were cut from sheet silver and usually decorated with bright-cut engraving that bordered long, tapering arms that ended in oval, shell, acorn, or eagle claw tips.

Artist Biography
Moses Eastman was born in Concord, New Hampshire on 17 June 1794. About 1820 he moved to Savannah Georgia and joined the partnership of J. Penfield & Co. with Josiah Penfield (1785-1828) and Frederick Marquand (1799-1882). The firm was dissolved in 1828 and Eastman worked under his own name, referring to himself in advertisements as “M. Eastman; surviving partner and succesor to the late firm of J. Penfield & Co.” In 1834 he married New Jersey native Elizabeth Tuthill (1799-1883) in Savannah. His business apparently continued operations after Eastman’s 1850 death but was eventually sold to George M. Griffen, who had worked for Eastman as a watchmaker. Eastman is buried in his New Hampshire hometown and with his wife Elizabeth Tuthill, who died in Madison, New Jersey. See George Barton Cutten, “The Silversmiths of Georgia” (Savannah, GA: Pigeonhole Press, 1958) and gravestone for Moses and Elizabeth Eastman, Pine Grove Cemetery, East Concord, Merrimack Co., NH (available online: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=104469889&PIpi=74598252 [accessed 20 September 2017]).
Artist Working Dates
1828-1850
Credit Line
Gift of Beth Mercier