TidesNet—Online Collections Entry Detail

DescriptionOne of a pair of coin silver presentation pieces sold by the renown Boston retail jeweler firm of Jones, Ball & Poor in 1852. Jones, Ball & Poor were part of a long line of retail jeweler firms in Boston that eventually evolved into the firm of Shreve, Crump and Low that still exists today. The partnership firm of Jones, Ball & Poor existed from 1846 to 1852. The two presentation pieces consist of a 7 1/2” tall vase, with a detail shown in the accompanying photograph, and a 7” in diameter plate, each inscribed with the words ”Presented to Rev. Kendall Brooks Jr., by the Cadets of Temperance, Eastport, Me. Sep. 3d, 1852.” The presentation was made as Brooks was about to depart as minister of the Washington Street Baptist Church in Eastport, Maine where he had served from 1845 to 1852. He was a graduate of Brown University and Newton Theological Institute. After leaving Eastport, he became a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at what is now Colby College and still later he was president of Kalamazoo College in Michigan for nearly 20 years. The Cadets of Temperance was an order founded in 1846, the year after Brooks arrived in Eastport, for young boys to promote their abstinence from alcohol. Presumably Brooks started the local branch of the order at Eastport. The inscribed vase was the first piece acquired by the Tides Institute in 2006 through a listing on Ebay by an antique silver dealer in New York City. Several years later, in 2013, the second piece, the inscribed plate, was secured through an auction house in Boston. Now the two pieces are joined together once again in the town where they were originally presented over 150 years earlier. Creator: Jones, Ball & Poor of Boston Classification: Object/Artifact Circa: 1852 Older Accession Number: 1424 Description: Presented to, Rev. Kendall Brooks Jr., by the Cadets of Temperance, Eastport, Me. Sep. 3d, 1852. Jones, Ball & Poor of Boston. Pure coin. TIMA purchase from Lauren Stanley, New York City, 2006.