The Noble and the Base:  The Hierarchy of Metals in Early America
A Presentation in Honor of Joyce Volk

In this talk, Gerry Ward will examine, in broad terms, the characteristics, qualities, uses, and essential roles of various metals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing on the precious metals (silver and gold) at one end, and everyday, so-called base metals (such as iron, pewter, and brass) at the other end of the spectrum. Each of these materials was used to fashion important household goods, sometimes of great aesthetic quality, that also, on occasion, embodied significant symbolic qualities. How these metals were obtained, processed, and used in households also sheds light on various issues of transatlantic trade, social structure and inequalities, cultural and religious ceremonies, and other aspects of daily life in colonial America. 

Image: John Coney (1655-1722), monteith, Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1705.  Silver; H. 8 5/8 × Diam. 10 3/4 in. Yale University Art Gallery; Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (1948.148).