Cup and Saucer from a Twelve Piece Tea Service

Patented 1853

Proudly embossed in gold with the family name, this tea set belonged to descendants of Pietro Cesare Alberti (1605–1655), one of the first Italian immigrants to New Netherlands. (“Alberti” was Anglicized to “Burtis” in the eighteenth century.) With a land grant from the Dutch West India Company, he ran a tobacco plantation along the Wallabout Bay (now the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard). Subsequent generations remained in Brooklyn, including Abraham Burtis, who lived on High Street at the time that this tea service was made.