Coffeepot

Of the many pieces of silver purchased by James Ford Bell with an eye to their donation to the Institute, this coffeepot is noteworthy for its provenance and the circumstances surrounding its sale. Having been given at the turn of the twentieth century to the President of Harvard University, Charles William Eliot, he in turn sold it in 1917 to raise funds for building a summer cottage on a property at Northeast Harbor on the coast of Maine. Out of deference to the source of the funding, the cottage has been called ever since Coffeepot.