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Sauce Boat & Ladle, Somerset County

From the USS Maryland Silver Service

Sauce Boat and Ladle, Somerset County

Maker: Samuel Kirk & Sons (1815-1979)
Objects: Sauce Boat and Ladle, Somerset County
Date: 1906
Medium: Sterling Silver
Dimensions: Sauce boat: Overall height, 7"; Overall width, 7 3/4"; Overall depth, 4 1/4"
Dimensions: Ladle: Overall length, 8 1/8"; Overall width, 2 1/4"
Accession number(s): MSA SC 1545-0935-1 (boat) and MSA SC 1545-0935-2 (ladle)

The USS Maryland silver service includes a pair of sauce boats and ladles representing Wicomico and Somerset Counties. Somerset County was created by an Order in Council in 1666 and named for Lady Mary Somerset, daughter of Thomas Arundell of Wardour, and sister of Lady Anne Arundell, wife of Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore.

While the seven scenes on each sauce boat are unique to that particular county, the overall appearance of each piece is identical. This sauce boat is decorated with scenes that relate to the early history of the city. Each piece has four main scenes that are separated by festoons of tobacco leaves, while the “border of progress” surrounds the upper portion of the bowl. The Great Seal and the Cruiser are each surrounded by sprays of native trees. The handle terminates in a cornucopia, while an eagle in relief extends out of the upper portion. Oyster shells around the base connect the pieces to the Eastern Shore, and the rope borders symbolize the nautical theme of the service.

The handle of the ladle is formed from a reproduction of a “crownstone” marker of the Mason-Dixon Line. These large limestone markers were placed every five miles along the Mason-Dixon Line, and were decorated with the coats-of-arms of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Visible scenes (left to right, top to bottom):
1. (number 96)
After twelve years of design and development, the first telegraph message in the United States was transmitted on above ground poles between Washington D.C. and Baltimore on May 23, 1844. Samuel F.B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought” to his partner Alfred Vail.

The original transmitting and receiving sets are now at the Smithsonian Institute and are also depicted on the pieces from Baltimore City and Baltimore, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Wicomico counties.

First telegraph set
First Telegraph Set
2. Great Seal of Maryland
3. (number 95)
The Cokesbury Bell came from Cokesbury College, the first Methodist college on the American continent. In 1789, when George Washington was heading to New York for his inauguration, the bell was rung in his honor as he passed by. In 1795, the tower that housed the bell was deliberately set on fire and everything was lost, except for the bell which was completely unharmed.

In 1888, the historic Cokesbury Bell was transferred to Goucher College, then in Baltimore City, and it remained with Goucher College until 1959 when it was presented to the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. The bell is also depicted on the pieces from St. Mary’s, Wicomico, and Charles counties.

Cokesbury Bell
Cokesbury Bell

4. (number 92)
The old courthouse for Somerset County depicted on the sauce boat was constructed in 1833 and was torn down in 1904.

Courthouse at Princess Anne
Courthouse at Princess Anne

5. (number 91)
Situated at the head of Back Creek in Somerset County, is "Westover Farm." The main house was built c. 1750 by the Hon. Samuel Wilson, a prominent lawyer in the county. Later owners expanded the main house, and at its largest, it contained up to 3200 acres of land and included numerous domestic and agricultural outbuildings, such as a carriage house, smoke house, milk house, stable, turkey house, and lumber house.

The house fell into disrepair in the late nineteenth century, and subsequent owners of the house demolished its ballroom wing and other dependencies, and all of the above-mentioned outbuildings. A view of the home as it was in the mid-19th century is depicted on the sauce boat.

Westover
Westover


Scenes on the reverse (left to righ, top to bottomt):
1. (number 94)

Peregrine Williamson, a jeweler from Baltimore, wanted to have a more durable writing instrument than the typical quill pen. He started testing designs in 1806 and by 1808 felt so confident in his pen he sent some as a gift to President Thomas Jefferson. In 1809, he was granted the first patent for a metallic pen and, in 1835, he was granted a second patent for an improved metallic pen. While Williamson’s original patent was lost in a fire, this depiction is based on one of his early pens held in the collection of the Maryland Center for History and Culture.

The first steel pen is also depicted on pieces from Charles, St. Mary’s, and Wicomico counties.

First Steel Pen

First steel pen
2. USS Maryland Cruiser
3. (number 96)
After twelve years of design and development, the first telegraph message in the United States was transmitted on above ground poles between Washington D.C. and Baltimore on May 23, 1844. Samuel F.B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought” to his partner Alfred Vail.

The original transmitting and receiving sets are now at the Smithsonian Institute and are also depicted on the pieces from Baltimore City and Baltimore, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Wicomico counties.

First telegraph set
First Telegraph Set
4. (number 90)
The construction of this 10,000 square foot brick neoclassical mansion built by Littleton Dennis Teackle began in 1802 and was finally finished in 1819.

The Teackles referred to the mansion as “Teackletonia” and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. It is now the home of the Somerset County Historical Society.

Teackle Mansion
Teackle Mansion

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