Sugar Bowl

In a critical naval battle during the American Civil War, the USS Monitor prevented the Confederacy’s CSS Virginia from running the Union blockade off the coast of Virginia. That event is engraved in the central medallion of this ovoid sugar bowl, part of a five-piece tea service commissioned to honor the Monitor’s chief engineer, Alban C. Stimers. Nautical references abound, including ropes, anchors, and Neptune masks. A distinctive finial, composed of a propeller, cannon, and centrifugal governor, acknowledges the ironclad warship’s advanced engineering. The angular, upturned handles recall the distinctive silhouette of the one on a Daunian jug in Moore’s collection, on view nearby, which may have been among the earliest objects he acquired.