James Duffel (ca. 1761–21 October 1835), silversmith, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and was the son of Barnabas Duffel and Rebecca Saunders Duffel. With whom he apprenticed to learn metalworking and when he moved to Virginia are unknown. Duffel served in the 5th and 11th Virginia Regiments of the Continental army during the American Revolution. By 1790 he had moved to Prince George's Parish, Georgetown, South Carolina, a major rice center. He may have hoped that the wealthy rice planters of the region would provide enough custom to support a local silversmith. Duffel left South Carolina in 1800 and was living in New York City the following year. By June 1802 he had opened a shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where his brother was a tailor and merchant. Illustrating the hazards of shopkeeping, Duffel advertised in 1804 that he had fallen victim to a fraud perpetrated by an African American girl who pretended to have been sent to the shop by a lady but who took several pairs of earrings, a gold brooch, and a ring. In August 1807 he announced in the Virginia Herald his intention to leave Fredericksburg, although he may not have departed until late in 1809. Duffel followed his brother to Lynchburg, where he purchased property in 1810 and eventually acquired half a dozen town lots.
Silversmiths supplemented their wares with imported goods, and Duffel was no exception. Throughout his career he advertised a wide variety of both silver and plated wares, not only of his own make but also items imported from such silversmithing centers as Boston, New York, and London. He also sold other goods in his shops, including mathematical instruments, ladies' pocketbooks, engravings, eyeglasses, jewelry, and watches, as well as "pistols, swords, epaulettes, whips, and canes." Duffel marked his silver pieces with "JD" or "I Duffel." Surviving examples of his work demonstrate his familiarity with current neoclassical design that favored clean surfaces with discreet decoration.
Duffel served on the city council and became a director of the Lynchburg branch of the Bank of Virginia. On 7 November 1817 he advertised in the Lynchburg Press that he intended to quit his business and offered his stock for sale and his house for lease. Duffel may not have disposed of all of his stock, however, because the inventory of his estate taken almost twenty years later included such items as thirty-seven pencil cases, twenty needle cases, nine silver cases with scissors, and three showcases with their contents. In 1819 he advertised the lease of a blacksmith shop and the hire of a blacksmith.
Duffel had married Rebecca Leonard, of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, by 1795. Their two sons died in childhood. As each of their five daughters married, Duffel made her a silver service consisting of a teapot, coffeepot, creamer, sugar bowl, and spoons. James Duffel died in Lynchburg on 21 October 1835 and was buried at Old City Cemetery. In 1952 some of his pieces were included in an exhibition at the Valentine Museum related to Virginia silversmiths. The Charleston Museum, Winterthur, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts own examples of his work.
Sources Consulted:
Biographies in George Barton Cutten, The Silversmiths of Virginia (Together with Watchmakers and Jewelers) from 1694 to 1850 (1952), 62–64, and Lucy Harrison Miller Baber and Evelyn Lee Moore, comps., Behind the Old Brick Wall: A Cemetery Story (1968), 46–47; Fredericksburg Virginia Herald, 29 June, 29 Oct. 1802, 3 Feb. 1804; Lynchburg Press, 12 Jan. 1815, 7 Nov. 1817 (quotation); Norfolk American Commercial Beacon and Norfolk & Portsmouth Daily Advertiser, 8 Jan. 1820; Richmond News Leader, 8 Nov. 1952; Lucille McWane Watson, "Silversmiths of Lynchburg, Virginia," The Magazine Antiques 59 (Jan. 1951): 40–43; estate inventory in Lynchburg Will Book, B:214–217; obituary with death date in Lynchburg Virginian, 22 Oct. 1835 (died "in the 74th year of his age"); gravestone inscription with incorrect death date of 23 Oct. 1835 "in the 76th year of his age" in William W. Hurt, "City or Methodist Cemetery" (typescript dated 3 Feb. 1937), 10, in Works Progress Administration, Virginia Historical Inventory, Library of Virginia.