SBU Rare Book Featured in Long Island Museum Exhibition

A rare book from Special Collections is currently on loan and on view in the Long Island Museum exhibition “Elias Pelletreau: Long Island Silversmith & Entrepreneur” through December 30, 2018. The exhibition examines and showcases Pelletreau’s unique works of silver crafted in Southampton and New York City, his career, and his patrons. The book on display contains a narrative* by Reverend Samuel Buell (1716-1798), a Presbyterian minister who moved to East Hampton in 1746 and was a patron of Pelletreau’s. During the American Revolution, Buell was a Patriot but remained on Long Island with his congregation.

 

From the Long Island Museum website: “Elias Pelletreau (1726-1810), an important Southampton silversmith and craftsman, created richly detailed, beautifully ornate, and shimmering eighteenth-century objects: teapots, pepper boxes, porringers, tankards and jewelry. This will be the first museum exhibition devoted to exploring Pelletreau’s life and work since the Brooklyn Museum mounted one in 1959. Accompanied by a beautiful full-length catalog being published by Preservation Long Island, Elias Pelletreau will feature nearly 170 artifacts; silver, paintings, and furniture will illuminate the life and times of one of this region’s most significant early American artisans.”

 

“While less celebrated than Paul Revere, Pelletreau created a remarkable body of work that exemplifies the best of American artisanship. This project illuminates his impressive legacy of surviving objects and business records, offering a fresh perspective into the world of patronage, commerce, and industry in colonial and revolutionary-era Long Island and New York City. Pelletreau apprenticed in Manhattan and began his career there in the 1740s. In this cosmopolitan setting, he gained a nuanced sensibility of then-current fashions and techniques as well as patronage connections. He later returned to Southampton, spending the rest of his career as a rural craftsman, supporting the patriot cause, and maintaining his assets during a time of major cultural transition.”

 

*Buell, Samuel, Alden Spooner, and Abner Reed. A Faithful Narrative of the Remarkable Revival of Religion, in the Congregation of Easthampton, on Long-Island, in the Year of Our Lord, 1764: With Some Reflections. Sag-Harbor [N.Y.]: Printed by Alden Spooner, 1808.