A Rare Silver Tea Strainer, Richard Humphreys (1750-1832), Philadelphia, PA, Circa 1775

Engraved with monogram, “H/ RA,” marked to underside of handle.

L: 3 7/8 in. W: 2 ¾ in., Weight: 1.24 oz. t.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

The monogram, “H/ RA,” stands for the conjoined initials of Richard and his second wife, Ann Morris. They were married on June 16, 1774.

Born in Tortola, Richard Humphreys came from a wealthy Quaker background. He was both a silversmith and activist. Contradicting his parents, plantation owners who prospered from slave labor, he championed the freedom and advancement of African Americans, founding The Institute for Colored Youth in 1837. This school was later renamed Cheyney University, and is still known as the oldest historically black college in America.

Provenance:

Owned by Richard Humphreys (1750-1832) and Ann Morris Humphreys (1754-1842) of Philadelphia.

By descent in family to the present owners.

lot 65: with some very minor scratches and mild rubbing commensurate with age and use; small cracks to either side of handle attachment along rim of bowl; cup clip along rim with roughness along top edge- appears to be missing element

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Lynda Cain

VP, Head of Department, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

lyndacain@freemansauction.com 267.414.1237

Lynda Cain serves as a Vice President of Freeman's and is the Head of Department for American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts.
She specializes in American furniture and decorative arts, Native American art, American folk art, and Pennsylvania furniture and decorative arts.
Cain joined Freeman's in 2001 as the company's first American furniture and decorative arts specialist. She began her career in American Decorative Arts as assistant curator at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1984 she became curator of costume at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1986, she relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts and switched from museum work when she joined the American Furniture and Decorative Art Department at Skinner Inc., Bolton and Boston, Massachusetts. Before leaving New England in 1997, she had the great pleasure of directing the cataloguing project of the Folk Art Collection of Nine Fletcher and Bertram K. Little at Cogswell’s Grant, Essex, Massachusetts for the Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. Ms. Cain joined the cast of the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow in Season 19.
Growing up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she was greatly influenced by the rich collections of American paintings, furniture, and decorative arts held by Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. She notes her good fortune of working in our two great “attic states:” Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Each Commonwealth has tremendous inventory of historic material, great institutions, and citizens who treasure their inherited and collected items. Cain appears on the television Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser of decorative and folk arts.

Andrew Taggart

Associate Vice President, Specialist, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

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American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

A Rare Silver Tea Strainer, Richard Humphreys (1750-1832), Philadelphia, PA, Circa 1775

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