Joseph Edwards Jr. (November 11, 1737 – April 23, 1783) 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 ...

. Edwards was born into a distinguished family of Boston silversmiths. His grandfather, John Edwards (1671-1746), came to Boston in 1688; after his death, he was described in the ''

Boston Evening-Post The ''Boston Evening-Post'' (August 18, 1735 – April 24, 1775) was a newspaper printed in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th century. Publishers included Thomas Fleet (d.1758), Thomas Fleet Jr. (d.1797), and John Fleet (d.1806).Thomas, 1874 ...

'' of April 14, 1746, as "John Edwards, goldsmith" and "a Gentleman of a very fair Character and well respected by all that knew him." Three of his sons - Joseph Edwards (1707-1777) senior,

Samuel Edwards Samuel Edwards (March 12, 1785 – November 21, 1850) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district from 1819 to 1823 and from Pennsylvania' ...

, and Thomas Edwards - also became silversmiths. The young Edwards appears to have apprenticed in the family, and advertised his own trade as early as 1758. According to a report in the ''Boston News-Letter'' of March 21, 1765, a thief broke into his shop and stole the following items: "34 pairs of wrought Silver Shoe Buckles, 20 pair of similar knee buckles, 6 pair of plain shoe buckles, 2 Silver Snuff Boxes, one with a Tortoise Shell Top, 9 Stock Buckles, 3 gold Necklaces, 5 gold Rings, several pair Stone Buttons, 3 pair brilliant Stone Earings, set in Gold, 5 pair gold cypher earings, several pair of silver cypher earings, several stone Rings; a Box of Gold Beads; 3 child’s Whistles; one pair of gold Buttons and 1 silver Pipe." His work is collected in the

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 ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

, and Yale University Art Gallery.

References

* ''American Silversmiths and Their Marks: The Definitive (1948) Edition'', Stephen Guernsey Cook Ensko, Courier Corporation, 1983, page 50. * ''American Silver of the XVII & XVIII Centuries: A Study Based on the Clearwater Collection'', Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater, Clara Louise Avery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1920, pages 79-80.
"Joseph Edwards"
American Silversmiths.
"USA, regulated $15, Joseph Edwards plug and countermark"
iCollector. * ''Historic Silver of the Colonies and Its Makers'', Francis Hill Bigelow, Macmillan, 1917, page 271. {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Joseph, Jr. American silversmiths 1737 births 1783 deaths Artisans from the Thirteen Colonies