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 exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

and merchant, active in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. 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 on ...

to Timothy Fletcher and Hannah Fosdick. In 1808 we went into business with Sidney Gardiner 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 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. 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. 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, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, 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. Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont ...

, and

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...

. 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