George III silver sugar tongs
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1780
name: label: Manufactured by
content: Thomas Wallis II, English, active ca. 1778 - 1809
notes: label: Caption
content: These pieces, much like those they would replace in Slavery and Freedom, represent the deadly plantation economy in the New World that satisfied the international demand for sugar, which became a staple in the English tea industry. They also represent the financial success that sugar brought to successful slave owners, financiers, slave traders, sugar merchants, and the lifestyle maintained by sugar consumers in the United States. Sugar, Britain’s largest import, was also the focus of one of the first anti-slavery boycotts after the abolition bill was rejected by British Parliament in 1791. The boycott attempted to put economic pressure on the slave-dependent industry of sugar, hastening the end of the trade.
label: Description
content: A set of George III silver sugar tongs from Thomas Wallis II, London. They are a narrow U-shaped piece of metal that terminate in shallow scallop-shell shaped bowls at each end. At the top of the tongs the bend in the metal is a solid plain silver with no decoration. The arms of the tongs are open metal fretwork, done in a pattern of small circles and larger ovals divided in half. The pattern begins at one end of each arm with a pair of two large ovals, each divided in half. Below them are four small circles arranged in a square. This pattern repeated once more, then the fretwork pattern terminates in a circle divided into three sections, on top of a long narrow neck. The arms are finished at each end by a stylized scallop-shell scoop. On the inside of the tongs' U-shaped bend is solid plain silver with a hallmark on either side. One is a lion passant in a square with a dip at the bottom. The other is a rectangle cartouche encompassing the letters 'TW.'
place: label: Place made
content: London, England
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: British colonialism
label: Topic
content: Commerce
label: Topic
content: Cooking and dining
label: Topic
content: Design
label: Topic
content: Domestic life
label: Topic
content: Economics
label: Topic
content: Slave trade
label: Topic
content: Slavery
label: Topic
content: Sugarcane
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design
label: Exhibition
content: Slavery and Freedom
label: On View
content: NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Concourse 3, C3 053
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2020.32.2
objectType: label: Type
content: sugar tongs
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: No Known Copyright Restrictions
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: silver
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 5 1/4 × 1 1/4 × 3/4 in. (13.3 × 3.2 × 1.9 cm)