Child's Bowl

This child’s bowl is decorated with scenes depicting five events in Colonial American history and a central panel featuring two militia men flanking a shield-shaped cartouche engraved with the monogram GAH. Each scene is identified with a title: The "Half Moon," J. Smith and the Indians, William Penn’s Treaty, Landing of the Pilgrims, and The Mayflower. The bowl was a gift—likely presented at a christening—to Gustave Adolph Heckscher II (1914–2006), whose initials appear in the central cartouche. An engraved inscription on its underside reads, "From his Godmother Aunt Nina," who was Johanna Brunham (1889–1972). The decorative program asserted young Gustave’s patrician lineage and expressed prevailing Colonial Revival interests and sensibilities. A baby fed from a sterling silver bowl featuring William Penn, Captain John Smith, and Pilgrims is being offered a carefully considered education and welcome to society—one that privileges a romanticized past as a guide for contemporary life. The choice of a child’s bowl with this particular decorative scheme provides the recipient instruction about the origin stories and histories to which he is heir and evokes ambitions for his future. Made by William B. Kerr Company, a silversmithing and jewelry firm with a manufactory in New Jersey and a shop in New York City, the bowl was retailed by Bailey, Banks & Biddle, the leading purveyor of luxury goods in Philadelphia. Affluent, privileged Philadelphians relied on Bailey, Banks & Biddle to provide silver that signaled taste and refinement.