Daniel Parker (November 20, 1726 - December 31, 1785) was an American silversmith, active in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Life

Parker was born in

Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...

to Isaac and Grace (Hall) Parker, where he married Margaret Jarvis on October 8, 1751. From 1748-1775 he worked as a gold- and silversmith in Boston, where he advertised 1750-1770 in the '' Boston Gazette'' as a goldsmith. He also advertised a theft in the ''Gazette'', 1759, of " "Three large Silver Spoons stamp'd D.Parker, 12 Tea Spoons, most of them stamp'd D.P., 3 pair Silver Tea Tongs, not stamp'd, one large Gold Locket ... 14 pair large open-work'd Silver Shoe Buckles with Steel Chapes....". He subsequently advertised in 1761 that he was robbed again, and reported the availability of jewelry and goldsmiths' tools from "his Shop near the Golden Ball." From 1763-1767 he advertised his Union Street address and that his tools included "Forging & raising anvils for tankards, canns & creampots," and "Death head & heart in hand ring swages." Apparently he also worked around 1775 as a gold- and silversmith in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

. Parker's works are collected in the

Harvard University Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, and Yale University Art Gallery.

References

"Daniel Parker"
American Silversmiths. * ''American Silversmiths and Their Marks'' IV, Stephen Guernsey Cook Ensko, D.R. Godine, 1989, page 156. * ''American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: With a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, Exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, July to December, 1911'', Museume of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911, pages 97-98. * ''American Silver: From the Colonial Period Through the Early Republic in the Worcester Art Museum'', Kathryn C. Buhler, Worcester Art Museum, 1979, page 32.
"Snuff box by Daniel Parker"
Yale University Art Gallery. {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Daniel American silversmiths 1726 births 1785 deaths