American Silver Tankard

Object Details

Object Essay

Among the first of the English silver forms to be replicated in America in the 17th century, tankards were large, covered, communal drinking vessels of a quart or more capacity. They became extremely popular in New England and New York and retained their popularity even after they went out of fashion in England. American silversmiths changed the tankard styles significantly, often combining English and Dutch design elements and developed regional variations in the form.        

This tankard displays the combination of New York and Boston characteristics often found on examples made in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The stepped, domed cover (the bezel of which is missing), with its button finial and cast dolphin-and-mask thumbpiece, displays a strong Boston influence. The heavy, low proportions of the tankard, the wide flange of its cover, and the elaboration of the base with wire wriggle-work reflect New York taste. Although Rhode Island’s location between Boston and New York could, in itself, explain these mixed stylistic influences, the background of the tankard’s maker could also account for them.      

Samuel Vernon was born in Narragansett, Rhode Island, but his mother was from Massachusetts and was a cousin of the well-known early Boston silversmith Edward Winslow (1669–1751).^{1_{Flynt and Fales, 347.}} The letterbook kept by Edward Winslow’s son, Joshua, indicates that the Winslows had business dealings with Vernon, who may have trained in Boston with his uncle or one of his uncle’s colleagues.^{2_{Letterbook of Joshua Winslow, 1715, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Kathryn Buhler believed that the style of Vernon’s work suggests that he may have been apprenticed to John Coney of Boston, rather than to Edward Winslow. Buhler 1972, 2: 554, and Buhler 1979, 79–80.}} Commercial ties between Rhode Island and Long Island also were strong, and Vernon’s first wife, Elizabeth Fleet, was from Long Island. Vernon’s surviving work shows that he was aware of both Boston and New York silversmithing traditions and suggests that he may have served clients who were familiar with both regional styles.^{3_{A tankard similar to this one is at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (see New England Silversmith, fig. 12). The tankard by Vernon in the Worcester Art Museum also has a stamped and applied band of leafage around the base, a typical New York feature. The same tankard has a distinctive handle drop with a large rounded bulb with pendant rattail, which also appears on a tankard by Edward Winslow (see Buhler 1979, 80). For an illustration of the Winslow tankard, see Ward 1989, 71. Vernon also made perfectly plain tankards without mid-bands (Buhler 1972, 556, and Buhler and Hood, 1: 274–75). The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design also has a tankard by Vernon with a mid-band, a scroll thumbpiece, a stepped, domed cover with a turned finial, and a coin on its handle terminal (see New England Silversmith, no. 320).}} Vernon individualized this particular tankard with a shield-shaped handle terminal, a long, rounded rat-tail at the upper handle joint, and an unusual leafy plinth cast at the base of the thumbpiece.

Vernon was one of Rhode Island’s finest silversmiths and an influential citizen of Newport. He became a freeman of the town in 1714, and in 1728 he was elected Justice of the Peace. He served as an Assistant in the Rhode Island General Assembly from 1729 until his death, and served as one of the commissioners in a boundary dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1737.^{4_{Buhler 1979, 79; Flynt and Fales, 347.}}

Jennifer F. Goldsborough and 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.