Images(7)

Tankard

Date1735-1745

Marked by Jacob Gerritse Lansing (1681-1767)

OriginAmerica, New York, Albany

MediumSilver

DimensionsH.(thumbpiece) 7 3/16"; H.(cover) 6 5/16"; H.(rim) 5 9/16"; Diam.(cover) 5 7/16"; Diam.(rim) 4 5/8"; Diam.(base) 5 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-271

DescriptionSilver tankard: Tapered cylindrical body with applied moldings at base and top; S-scroll handle with long beaded drop extending from engraved hinge plate and applied cherub’s head mask on circular disk at terminal. Hinged, flat-topped, stepped lid with wide rim and crenelated lip, with vertical, cast corkscrew thumbpiece.

Flat-topped, double-stepped cover with wide, encircling flange with engraved crenate lip opposite handle; corkscrew thumbpiece soldered to cover and to upper hinge plate; hinge plates molded on either side of joint with zigzag wire inset in upper hinge plate; lower hinge plate of shield form and engraved; S-scroll handle of D-shaped section with long graduated, segmented drop depending from lower hinge plate and extending well below curve on face of handle and terminal in the form of a circular disc with a cast and applied cherub mask; tapered cylindrical body with multiple moldings at rim and base.
Label TextTankards were a common communal drinking form in America throughout the colonial period. By the early 19th century, however, changing social customs and the growing temperance movement made them less desirable. Many silver tankards were sold to be melted and re-made into more fashionable forms. Others were converted for use as ice water pitchers through the addition of a pouring lip opposite the handle. Two surviving receipts from the 1820s document the work of Albany silversmiths altering tankards for the Sanders family, including this example. More than fifty years ago, the pouring lip of this tankard was removed; today, the spout would be kept in place as part of the object’s history.
InscribedEngraved on base "D/I:S" in block letters for John Sanders I (1714-1782) and Deborah Glen (1721-1786), who married in 1739.
MarkingsMarked to right of handle in relief “IL" with serifs and a barred I within an indistinctly shaped reserve

ProvenanceJacob Gerritse Lansing, the maker of this tankard, married, in about 1710, Helena Glen (born 1683), daughter of Jacob Alexander Glen and Catharina Van Whitbeck and first cousin of Deborah Glen's father, Jacob Glen.

This tankard was made after the 1739 wedding between John Sanders I (1714-1782) and Deborah Glen (1721-1786). It then probably descended to son John Sanders II (1757-1834), m. (1777) Deborah Sanders (1757-1793), to son Peter Sanders (1792-1850), who married in 1824 Maria Elmendorf (1796-1869), to sons Peter Edmund Sanders (1827-1898) and Charles P. Sanders (1824-1891). Finally, it may have been one of the "2 Silver Tankards" in the bills of sale in 1874 transferring all the family silver to Charles P. Sanders' wife Jane Livingston Ten Broeck (1823-1898).

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