Samson Cariss
(1804-1870)
MSA SC 3520-16837
Biography:
Birth: 25 October 1804, Newcastle-under-Lyne, Staffordshire, England.[1] Marriage: Catherine Cariss. Children: Elizabeth (b.1832), Isabella (b.1835), Margaret (b.1838).[2] Death: 22 December 1870, Baltimore, MD.
Born in Staffordshire, England to William and Elizabeth Cariss, Samson Cariss immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland in 1829.[3] There are records of United States passport applications by Cariss as late as 1845, indicating some difficulty in his naturalization.[4]
By 1840, Cariss was working in manufacture and trade.[5] Records of Samson Cariss's business begin in 1846 with advertisements in the American and Commercial Daily Advertiser selling various furnishings including silver plateware and imported cutlery, cake baskets, tea sets, snuffers, and trays. He described himself in a February 15, 1847 advertisement for a new style of coffee pot and another on April 30, 1852 for a blowpipe lamp as the "Sole Agent of Patents [in this City]." By 1848, Cariss was advertising as a gilder and carver, specializing in looking-glasses and frames in a Roccoco style. Perhaps most recognizably, Cariss designed several decorative pieces and looking-glasses for the Ridgelys' Hampton House in Towson, Maryland. In the 1850s, Samson Cariss & Co. added the sale of paintings and auctioneering to the business.[6] This new fine art emphasis included a gallery that exhibited several traveling paintings which visitors could pay to view.
Apart from private sale, Samson Cariss & Co. secured several contracts with the state of Maryland. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, Cariss was paid by the Mayor and Council of Baltimore to furnish plate glass for the city's post office and jail, and helped to supply furnishings for the ship, the North Carolina.[7] In 1860, Cariss was paid $300 for likely making the frame for Edwin White's Washington Resigning His Commission, commissioned to be displayed at the Maryland State House in honor of George Washington's 100th birthday, along with providing other unnamed "furnishings" to the State House.[8]
In the community, Cariss was a prominent voice. His interest in art appeared to also include performance, and he, along with several other men, wrote a letter to actor Edwin Booth to thank him for his performance at the Holliday Street Theatre.[9] He served as Grand Treasurer of the Grand Masonic Lodge between 1848 and 1858, along with serving as Master and later Treasurer of Concordia Lodge, No. 13.[10] By 1860, his personal estate was valued at $20,000 and his real estate at $13,000, indicating the financial success of his mercantile business.[11] Samson Cariss continued the firm of Samson Cariss & Co. until his partnership with E. Harrington Jr. dissolved on February 6, 1863.[12]
Cariss died on December 22, 1870 at the age of 66.[13] Many of his pieces can still be seen at Hampton National Historic Site, the Maryland State House, Blair House, and Winterthur.
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