Rare Storr & Mortimer, New York, Coin Silver (.900) Waiter, 1839-1841, of circular form with milled floral and foliate rim and three shell-and-scroll bracket feet, the plateau engraved with a wide band of rococo scrolls on an imbricate ground, dia. 12-1/4", 38.21 t. oz. The important London firm of Paul Storr (1771-1844) and John Mortimer (d. 1871) operated a short-lived manufactory in New York between 1839 and 1841. (Even though Storr had retired in late 1838 and had been succeeded by his remaining partners Mortimer & Hunt, the American branch was conducted under the firm's old name.) A January 1841 advertisement in Bentley's Miscellany states that they will "receive regularly by the steam vessels the patterns as they are produced from their manufactory in London" but also that "having completed their arrangements are now enabled to manufacture here every description of Plate and Jewellery". The present lot - bearing no English hallmarks and distinctly American in style - was evidently one of these made in the United States for Storr & Mortimer. The American venture proved unsuccessful, however, probably owing to stringent American import duties, and closed by the end of 1841.