Silver Sugar Tongs

Artisan: Pete Acquisto
Date: 2024
Inscriptions: stamped indistinctly inside tongs, but too small to read
Dimensions: 17 x 6 x 2 mm. / ⅝ x ¼ x ¹⁄₁₆ inches (height x width x depth)
Inventory number: 2025.005
Intended Room: Parlour
Category: Silver

Provenance: Bought from the Acquisto Silver website in January 2025

We could make a case for these tiny sugar tongs to be in either the Parlour (for afternoon tea) or the Dining Room (for after-dinner coffee), but for now we’ve gone for the Parlour. They are so incredibly tiny that I had a devil of a job trying to photograph them, even with my macro lens, but hopefully I’ve been able to capture at least some of their elegant detail.

Like many of Pete’s miniature pieces, these tongs are inspired by the silver of the American Paul Revere, and they are based on an example dating to around 1792. Pete’s website notes that there is a full-size example in the Pauline Revere Thayer Collection.