Antiques

Liberty silver plated tray. The stamp looks like it's been stamped twice, overlapping slightly. Is this fake?

From the recent exhibition at the New York Historical Society, "Crafting Freedom". Commeraw's work was already known and well regarded, but it was only a few years ago that records were uncovered revealing that he was a Black New Yorker and had been politically active, including leading a tragically failed colonization effort to Sierra Leone.

The official title is "All-Under-Heaven Complete Map of the Everlasting Unified Qing Empire". Modesty was not a concern...

It's not obvious at a glance, but this map depicts not just China, but Southeast Asia, Africa, England, the Netherlands, possibly Portugal...it's a map meant not for navigation, but for prestige and administration.

I did a podcast interview about this map with dealer Kevin Brown, if you're curious.

A beautiful teapot though unusual for the period--some have speculated that the spout was a later replacement, but metal analysis suggests it is probably original. The coat of arms are a slightly later replacement, as faint traces of an earlier engraving can be seen. The extant arms likely belonged to a north Welsh family, possibly Edwards or Trevor.