Thomas Wallis II, English, active ca. 1778 - 1809 Search this
Medium:
silver
Dimensions:
H x W x D: 5 1/4 × 1 1/4 × 3/4 in. (13.3 × 3.2 × 1.9 cm)
Type:
sugar tongs
Place made:
London, England
Date:
ca. 1780
Caption:
These pieces, much like those they would replace in Slavery and Freedom, represent the deadly plantation economy in the New World that satisfied the international demand for sugar, which became a staple in the English tea industry. They also represent the financial success that sugar brought to successful slave owners, financiers, slave traders, sugar merchants, and the lifestyle maintained by sugar consumers in the United States. Sugar, Britain’s largest import, was also the focus of one of the first anti-slavery boycotts after the abolition bill was rejected by British Parliament in 1791. The boycott attempted to put economic pressure on the slave-dependent industry of sugar, hastening the end of the trade.
Description:
A set of George III silver sugar tongs from Thomas Wallis II, London. They are a narrow U-shaped piece of metal that terminate in shallow scallop-shell shaped bowls at each end. At the top of the tongs the bend in the metal is a solid plain silver with no decoration. The arms of the tongs are open metal fretwork, done in a pattern of small circles and larger ovals divided in half. The pattern begins at one end of each arm with a pair of two large ovals, each divided in half. Below them are four small circles arranged in a square. This pattern repeated once more, then the fretwork pattern terminates in a circle divided into three sections, on top of a long narrow neck. The arms are finished at each end by a stylized scallop-shell scoop. On the inside of the tongs' U-shaped bend is solid plain silver with a hallmark on either side. One is a lion passant in a square with a dip at the bottom. The other is a rectangle cartouche encompassing the letters 'TW.'
