Thomas Charles Fletcher (April 3, 1787 - November 14, 1866) was a prominent American

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

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

Alstead, New Hampshire Alstead () is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,864 at the 2020 census. Alstead is home to Feuer State Forest. History The town was chartered by Massachusetts Governor Jonathan Belcher in 1735 as one ...

to Timothy Fletcher and Hannah Fosdick. In 1808 we went into business with

Sidney Gardiner Sidney Gardiner (July 23, 1787 - May 1827) was a prominent American silversmith and merchant, active in Boston and Philadelphia. His firm of Fletcher & Gardiner was nationally renowned. Fletcher was born in Mattituck, New York. He migrated to Bo ...

in Boston, and was listed as a jeweler in the 1809 Boston directory. In 1811 they moved their firm, Fletcher & Gardiner, to Philadelphia. By 1812, they had a sufficient reputation to win commissions for several trophies commemorating American victories in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. In 1815 Fletcher visited England and France to buy retail merchandise. The partnership continued until Gardiner's death in 1827, when Fletcher brought Calvin W. Bennett into the business. The firm suffered financial reversals in the 1830s, and in 1842 was repossessed by creditors. Fletcher subsequently ran a boarding house in Philadelphia until 1850, when he moved to

Delanco Township, New Jersey Delanco Township is a township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 4,283, reflecting an increase of 1,046 (+32.3%) from the 3,237 counted in the 2000 Census, whic ...

. He lived in Delanco until his death. Silver by Fletcher and company 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 Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana (culture), Americana in the United States. The museum and es ...

, and

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

. His papers are archived in the Winterthur Museum.

References

* ''Silversmiths to The Nation: Thomas Fletcher & Sidney Gardiner, 1808-1842'', Donald L. Fennimore & Ann K. Wagner, Antique Collectors' Club, 2007.
"Thomas Fletcher: A Philadelphia Entrepreneur of Presentation Silver"
in Winterthur Portfolio, Elizabeth Ingerman Wood, Volume 53, Number 1, Spring 2019.

in the Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Museum.

American Silversmiths.
"Portrait of Thomas Fletcher by Henry Williams"
Yale University Art Gallery.
"Engraved proof of advertisement for silversmith Thomas Fletcher"
USS Constitution Museum.
"Fletcher & Gardiner"
The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Thomas 1787 births 1866 deaths American silversmiths People from Delanco Township, New Jersey