The five known pieces of silver made for Samuel Cornell comprise the most important group of silver by Myer Myers made for a single patron. The Cornell group is distinctive not only because it is the largest surviving commission of Myers silver, but also because it contains some of the rarest forms of the rococo period. The present pair of wine coasters, together with an identical pair by Myers made for the Schuyler family, are the unique American examples of the form. (The Schuyler pair, in the collection of the New-York Historical Society, is illustrated in Jeanette W. Rosenbaum, Myer Myers, Goldsmith, 1954, plate 11, p.77.) The four other Myers pieces in the Cornell group are: the dish ring at the Yale University Art Gallery, the only American dish ring known; the cake basket at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of only four American rococo cake baskets known; the coffeepot at the Museum of the City of New York; and the baluster cann at the Wadsworth Atheneum. All five pieces in the group are engraved with the monogram SSC, and the dish ring at Yale and the present coasters appear to be engraved by the same hand. In the American Rococo catalogue, Leslie Bowman writes, "the knowledge that a third of the American pierced work surviving from the rococo period belonged to the Cornells is a cogent illustration of just how vital the patronage of a very few affluent families was to the development of American rococo silver" (Heckscher and Bowman, American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament, 1992, Cornell silver figs. 82 and 83, text pp. 122-123). While no correspondence between Myers and Cornell survives, Cornell's firm stance as a Loyalist suggests that he directed Myers to design his silver after the latest English fashions. (Dish ring illus. in Buhler & Hood, American Silver in the Yale University Art Gallery, 1970, no. 659, pp. 102-103; cake basket illus. in Frances Gruber Safford, "Colonial Silver in the American Wing," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Summer 1983, figs. 67, 68, pp.50-51; coffeepot and cann illus. in Rosenbaum, op. cit., pls. 12 and 13, pp.78-79.)
Samuel Cornell was born in Flushing, Long Island, of Quaker parents, and moved to North Carolina around the time of his marriage to Susannah Mabson of New Bern in 1756. After just ten years of mercantile activity in both overseas and "triangular" trade, Cornell became the richest man in North Carolina. In 1768, the Colonial Governor William Tryon borrowed 8,000 from Cornell for the construction of Tryon Palace, which stands today in New Bern. As a result of this generosity, the Governor noted Cornell's "very genteel and public spirit," and appointed him to the Royal Council in 1770, the year the palace was completed. At the opening celebration, Sir Nathaniel Dunkinfield noted with surprise that the dignified Councillor Samuel Cornell "hopped a reel." Cornell's support of Tryon was not strictly financial, however, and he fought with the Governor's troops at the Battle of Alamance in 1771.

Cornell's land holdings in North Carolina were vast; he owned a house in New Bern, two plantations on the Trent River, a rum distillery, and several warehouses, together valued at 40,976 in 1784. Cornell's business papers, preserved at the New York Public Library, record exports of local products such as pork, turpentine, pitch, deer skins, and red oak. His ships also carried West Indian goods, and one packet in 1775 delivered "112 Puncheons Rum & 273 bags of black Ginger" to London. Cornell's surviving bills of lading show that he traded great quantities of Madeira, and it is reasonable to assume that the present wine coasters were used frequently for this type of wine, which was particularly popular in the American Colonies. Cornell's own wine cellar was reportedly large enough to hold several pipes of wine and eighty hogsheads of rum.

By 1775, the impending political crisis began to threaten Cornell's financial security. He persuaded Governor Josiah Martin to allow him a leave of absence from the Royal Council so he could flee to England. Governor Martin wrote for approval to the Earl of Dartmouth on August 28, 1775:

[INDENT AND CENTER THIS GRAPH] Mr Cornell, a Member of the Council of this Province, who is I believe the most opulent Merchant in it representing to me lately that he had reason to believe he would be compelled if he stayed here to give his credit to the Paper money intended to be emitted by the Continental Congress, as well as the Provincial Convention which will be against his conscience and principles, as well as injurious to his Interest, and having therefore desired my leave to go to England, I have granted it to him and I must do this Gentleman My Lord the justice to say that he has borne his part in the Council with great propriety...he has manifested the firmest attachment to Government, and a just indignation against the Proceedings of the seditious upon all occasions.

After more than a year in England, Cornell moved to New York under the protection of the British occupation of 1776-1783. In December of 1777, with the hope of blocking confiscation of his holdings in North Carolina, Cornell sailed to New Bern under a flag of truce. The new Provincial Assembly at first refused him landing because he would not swear allegiance to the Revolutionary cause and he was known to have informed the British of rebel supply routes into North Carolina. Finally, however, in spite of Cornell's defiance, Revolutionary Governor Caswell allowed him ashore to collect his goods, servants, and family. This special privilege prompted one of Cornell's friends in New York to write of him that "there are some people in the world on whom fortune is never tired of lavishing her favours--and he is one of the lucky few." While still in New Bern harbor waiting for permission to land, Cornell deeded his property to his daughters, but this action did not prevent all of his land from later being seized under the North Carolina Confiscation Act of 1779. In January of 1778, Cornell and his family arrived safely in New York where they were prepared to sit out the war. Cornell remained loyal to the last, setting sail in 1781 for Virginia in order to relieve British troops. However, he fell ill during the voyage and returned to New York where he died shortly thereafter. Cornell's will indicates that his effects were evenly divided between his five daughters. The present wine coasters were inherited by his third daughter Sarah, who married Matthew Clarkson, ironically a celebrated officer of the American Revolution.

(References: Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, 1864; William L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Carolina, 1890, vols. VIII-X; John Cornell, Genealogy of the Cornell Family, New York, 1902; Marshall Delancy Haywood, Governor William Tryon, 1903; "Papers Relating to Samuel Cornell, North Carolina Loyalist," New York Public Library Bulletin, vol. XVII (May 1913), pp. 443-484; Robert O. Demond, The Loyalists in North Carolina During the Revolution, 1940; Alonzo Thomas Dill, Governor Tryon and his Palace, 1955.


Photo caption: Tryon Palace, built with a loan of 8,000 from Samuel Cornell in 1768. Public Record Office, London; Photograph courtesy Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens/North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

Photo caption: Samuel Cornell's Cake Basket by Myer Myers, 1760-1770. Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morris K. Jesup Fund, 1954 (54.167)

Photo caption: Samuel Cornell's Dish Ring by Myer Myers, 1760-1770. Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (1936.136)