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Tankard

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Tankard

circa 1700
silver
7 5/8 in. x 5 7/8 in. x 5 7/8 in. (19.37 cm x 14.92 cm x 14.92 cm)
Museum Purchase: Gift of the Friends, 1964.3

Edward Winslow
American
1669–1753

This tankard is a masterpiece of early American silver. Made during a time when weight and ornamentation were the main features contributing value to silver articles, the tankard is heavy (thirty-eight ounces) and ornate. Such costly items were rare among seventeenth-century New Englanders, and there is usually a story behind the ownership. The museum purchased this tankard from a dealer who acquired it from the pioneer antiquarian and founding director of Boston's Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, William Sumner Appleton, who carefully preserved its history of descent in the Foster and Codman branches of his family. The earliest set of initials engraved on this tankard confirms its ownership by Captain Richard Foster (1663-1745) and his wife, Parnell (Winslow) Foster (1667-1751), cousin of the maker. The Fosters were residents of Charlestown, Massachusetts, where they were members of the First Church, which Winslow supplied with a comparable pair of tankards in 1703. Foster was a West Indies trader, the class of entrepreneurial capitalist most given to ostentatious living and investing in luxuries such as silver. The second set of engraved initials signifies the transfer of the tankard to the Fosters' son Isaac and his wife, Eleanor. Their grandson, William Foster Codman, inherited the tankard during the nineteenth century.

The tankard's maker, Edward Winslow, was one of Boston's most accomplished silversmiths. In 1683, he commenced an apprenticeship to Boston's first American-born silversmith, Jeremiah Dummer (1645-1718). Like that of Dummer and contemporary John Coney (q.v.), Winslow's work exhibits features typical of Boston silver from the period. The tankard's grooved handle, tapering pendant drop inside the handle's upper end, dolphin-shaped cast silver thumb-piece, cast cherub terminating the handle, flat top, and bold geometric massing are features of the best Boston silver work. These symbols of power, birth, and death also flattered the owner's sense of control over mortality and reputation.

American silver exhibited strong regional features throughout the eighteenth century. Although only a handful of major coastal cities were able to support silversmiths skilled at making hollowware forms, apprenticeship networks and the preferences of local and regional patrons assured the development of a distinct local style. Boston was the most active center of the silversmithing industry in colonial America, and its smiths enjoyed a near monopoly on commissions from interior New England towns.

WNH and KB


REFERENCE

Kathryn C. Buhler. "A Tankard by Edward Winslow." Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin, July-August 1964, pp. 1-5.


Exhibition
1979 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Friends of the Currier Gallery of Art: 20 Years of Acquisition." Jan. 12 - Feb. 25.

1984 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Friends of The Currier Gallery of Art: 25 Years of Acquisitions." Jan. 8 - Feb. 12.

1995-1997 "American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art." Organized by the Currier Gallery of Art and the American Federation of Arts. Traveled to: Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Dec. 3, 1995 - Jan. 28, 1996; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, Mar. 15 - Apr. 7, 1996; Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA, Aug. 10 - Oct. 13, 1996; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, Feb. 2 - Mar. 30, 1997; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Apr. 25 - June 22, 1997; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, July 18 - Sept. 8, 1997, cat. no. 52.

Provenance
Created for Captain Richard Foster (1663-1745) and his wife, Parnell Winslow (cousin of the maker)
Gift to their son, Captain Issac Foster (1704-1781) and his wife, Eleanor Wyer
Gift to their daughter, Eleanor Foster (b. 1746) and her husband Dr. Nathaniel Coffin
Gift to their grandson William Codman (b. 1795)
Estate of William Sumner Appleton
Purchased by Mrs. George C. Gebelein
Descended to the children of Mrs. George C. Gebelein
Purchased by Currier Gallery of Art, 1964


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