Trading Ship Documents & Pitcher, ca. 1816
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GUEST:
The captain of the ship the Mary Ann, he was my great-great-great- grandfather. And we're just really interested in finding out a little bit more about what we have. One of the pieces has James Madison's signature, so that was something that we thought might be of value.
APPRAISER:
Well, basically the ship was a China trade ship. And much of the wealth of New England was going to China, picking up goods, exotic goods, whatever they could get...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Bringing them back, trading them, sometimes even trading them along the way. The crew, they'd sometimes be out a couple of years at a time, but when they got back safely, the captain would get paid very well, the merchants who owned the ship made a huge amount of money, and the crew were paid.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Now, this is the sort of invoice book for the whole ship.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And it tells everything they got, everything they picked up, where they got it, where they brought it to, and the sums, the amounts, the weights. And so it's a very interesting item of what a China trade ship was doing.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
This document, which is the one signed by Madison, this is basically the passport. The passport is for the captain. And the last document, which I really like for the engraving at the top...
GUEST:
I do, too.
APPRAISER:
It's a bill of passage. And it was sort of a safe passage to Canton, China, and without that, they could get stopped.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And the War of 1812 was just at the end, and they needed to make sure they could get there. Now, this pitcher-- actually, it's a beautiful pitcher. It's United States on this side.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
It was done in Liverpool, and these are relatively common, but the real thing that helps is the ship.
GUEST:
The name, okay.
APPRAISER:
I mean, that's what brings it all together. What you have as a group would probably be in the value of $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
In a retail market.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
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