Freedom Box Presented by the Corporation of the City of New York to John Jay

At once a precious gold object and an American icon, this engraved box is far more significant than its small size might suggest. It is one of five gold boxes made for presentation to patriots of the American Revolution. John Jay (1745–1829), to whom this box was presented, was celebrated for his role in negotiating peace with Great Britain and as a signatory of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. Born into one of New York City’s wealthiest merchant families, Jay would later become the first Chief Justice of the United States (1789–1795) and the second Governor of New York (1795–1801). As Governor of New York in 1799, he signed into law "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery," ensuring that all children born to slave parents in the state would be free.

Snuffboxes of this sort were far more common in Europe, where a pinch of powdered tobacco inhaled through the nostrils was a fashionable ritual. An eighteenth-century American gold box, however, is a distinct rarity. This box is marked by Samuel Johnson, who in addition to working as a silversmith became an Assistant Alderman in 1783. In the 1780s his shop was located on Crown Street (later renamed Liberty Street) in lower Manhattan, where the engraver Peter Rushton Maverick also operated his shop. That Maverick signed his name to this engraving is highly unusual and suggests the importance of this historic commission. Of the five boxes presented by the Common Council of the City of New York, only two are known today—the present example and one given to Baron von Steuben, now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery. Upon John Jay’s death in 1829, the box descended to his eldest grandson, John Clarkson Jay (1808–1891) and remained in the family until 1991.