Sidney Gardiner (July 23, 1787 - May 1827) was a prominent American silversmith and merchant, 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 ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. His firm of Fletcher & Gardiner was nationally renowned. Fletcher was born in

Mattituck, New York Mattituck is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 4,219 at the 2010 census. Located in the Town of Southold, Mattituck CDP roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name. ...

. He migrated to Boston, where his family had long-standing connections. In 1803 he and Thomas Fletcher, then in their teens, formed a partnership that comprised silversmithing and selling fancy hardware at 43 Marlboro Street. In 1811 their firm of Fletcher & Gardiner moved to

, with a shop at Third and Chestnut Street, where Gardiner worked until his death while traveling in

Vera Cruz, Mexico Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

. In 1824 he was a founding member of the Franklin Institute. Silver by Fletcher & Gardiner is collected in the

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 ...

, the

Harvard 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 ...

, Winterthur Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery. His papers are archived in the Winterthur Museum.

References

"Sidney Gardiner"
American Silversmiths. * ''Silversmiths to The Nation: Thomas Fletcher & Sidney Gardiner, 1808-1842'', Donald L. Fennimore & Ann K. Wagner, Antique Collectors' Club, 2007.
"Fletcher & Gardiner"
The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Sidney American silversmiths 1787 births 1827 deaths