Nathaniel Richardson (February/April 2, 1754 – September 2, 1827) was an 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 gre ...

, active in

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 ...

. Richardson was born to noted silversmith

Joseph Richardson Sr. Joseph Richardson Sr. (September 28, 1711 - 1784) was an American silversmith, active in Philadelphia. He has been described as one of the greatest silversmiths of his time. Richardson was born in Philadelphia to silversmith Francis Richardson II ...

and raised in the craft. From 1785-1791 he partnered with his older brother,

Joseph Richardson Jr. Joseph Richardson, Jr. (December 4, 1752 – March 11, 1831), was a noted American silversmith, active in Philadelphia. Richardson was born in Philadelphia, the son of silversmith Joseph Richardson Sr. (1711–1784) and grandson of noted silve ...

, in the silversmithing firm of Joseph & Nathaniel Richardson, but then gave up silversmithing and became an ironmonger and hardware merchant with Isaac Paxton. His silver, created in partnership with his brother, is collected in the

Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

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 ...

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...

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 in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of ...

, 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. ...

References

* ''Joseph Richardson and family, Philadelphia silversmiths'', Martha Gandy Fales, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1974.
"Nathaniel Richardson"
American Silversmiths.

Winterthur Museum. * ''American Silversmiths and Their Marks: The Definitive (1948) Edition'', Stephen G. C. Ensko, Courier Corporation, 2012, page 113. {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Nathaniel American silversmiths 1754 births 1827 deaths