American Silver Cann

Object Details

Object Essay

Canns first became popular in New England about 1715, and were made in increasing numbers as the century progressed. By mid-century, the cann was clearly preferred to the tankard for everyday use. The tankard, a communal drinking vessel, became primarily a ceremonial form, while canns satisfied the new desire for individual drinking vessels. The mate to this cann is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.^{1_{Buhler 1972, 269–70, 273; Buhler 1979, 27. Buhler suggests that the weight scratched on the bottom of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, cann, “27–18–0,” was the weight for the pair, a weight slightly greater than the combined weight of these two canns. A third cann by Swan, now at the Worcester Art Museum, exhibits the more bulbous body found on slightly earlier examples of the form. The earlier cann also has a simpler C-scroll handle rather than the double-scroll handle that became standard on the fully developed rococo form.}}

William Swan was born in 1715 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to Captain Ebenezer (b. 1686) and Prudence (Foster) Swan (b. 1684). He was probably trained in Boston and, in 1744, he married Levinah Keyes in King’s Chapel. Two years later, Swan joined the expedition against the French at Louisburg, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In 1749, he received the most important commission of his career when he was asked by the Province of Massachusetts to make a two-handled covered cup for presentation to Colonel Benjamin Pickman. Swan’s first three children –William, Levinah, and Thomas – were born in Boston between 1745 and 1751. Swan had moved to Worcester by 1756, as the birth of his fourth child is recorded there. Although removed from Boston, and from the sources of the best commissions, Swan continued to do well, receiving substantial orders for communion silver for the churches in Northborough, Lancaster, and Sterling. Swan served in several offices in Worcester, including Clerk of the Market and Sealer of Weights and Measures.^{2_{Kane, forthcoming, s.v. “William Swan;” Buhler 1979, 27. For further information on the cup presented to Benjamin Pickman, see Fales 1983, 18–19.}}

Barbara McLean Ward and Jennifer F. Goldsboroug

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.