Object Details
Object Essay
Although unmarked, this tankard is typical of Boston work in the mid–18th century: it has a tall tapering body with midband, scroll thumbpiece, tall domed cover, turned bell finial, and cast-mask handle terminal. The distinctive design of the engraved coat of arms, with its heart-shaped cartouche within a ruffled shell border, is also characteristic of Boston workmanship. The same style of cartouche appears on objects made by Jacob Hurd, (1702/3–1758) William Homes, Sr. (1717–1783), Josiah Austin (1718–1780), John Coburn (1725–1803), Benjamin Burt (1729–1805), Nathaniel Hurd (1730–1777), Daniel Henchman (1730–1775), Samuel Minott (1732–1803), and Joseph Edwards (1737–1783), and suggests that the engraving may have been done by a specialist.1See Buhler and Hood, 1: 152, 153, 168, 173; Buhler 1972, 1: 230, 310; 2: 474; Fales 1958, figs. 98, 110; Puig et al., 267–68; Safford, 45; Warren et al., 69–71.
A likely candidate is Nathaniel Hurd, whose working career spans those of the makers on whose objects this cartouche appears. Nathaniel Hurd was the fourth child of silversmith Jacob Hurd and the oldest son to train in his father’s shop. He evidently learned engraving under his father’s tutelage and had become so skillful in the art during his apprenticeship that he engraved many objects that emanated from his father’s shop. In 1760, he advertised that he carried on all branches of the silversmithing business, but he soon began to specialize in engraving on silver and copper. A teapot by Nathaniel Hurd engraved with the arms of the Gibbs family in this style cartouche is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. A cann by Hurd with the Lloyd arms in the same cartouche is at Historic Deerfield. Although his silver is rare (French listed only twenty-five objects bearing his mark), at least fifteen engravings and fifty-five bookplates by him survive. In 1765, he engraved a bookplate for William Greenleaf (1725–1803), the Boston merchant and patriot. Hurd never married; when he died in 1777, he bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his brothers and sisters.2Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 135, 140. Flynt and Fales, 97; French, 51–53, 82–137. The Greenleaf bookplate has a martlet on the chevron, but otherwise the blazon and crest are the same (French, 108). The Greenleaf crest, a dove holding an olive branch in its beak, also appears on a small nutmeg grater originally owned by Susanna Greenleaf (1722–1783) who married silversmith John Coburn (1725–1803) in 1750 (Buhler 1972, 1: 306).
Barbara McLean Ward
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.