Tankard

Dateca. 1710

Maker Vauxhall Pottery (1683-1865)

OriginEngland, London, Vauxhall (probably)

MediumStoneware, salt-glazed, brown

DimensionsOverall: 6 5/8in. (16.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2008-74

DescriptionStraight-sided salt-glazed stoneware tankard with cordoned bands at the base and a strap handle with a pinched lower terminal. The top two-thirds of the tankard coated in an iron wash. The piece is ornamented with three sprig-applied tree trunks and pricked-pad leafage evenly spaced around the vessel.
Label TextThere is considerable variation in size and capacity among the stoneware drinking vessels owned in early America. Pint and quart mugs and tankards by far constitute the majority of the items found in archaeological contexts, but a massive plain half-gallon specimen has also been excavated from Lightfoot, Virginia. In size, the Lightfoot tankard is evocative of the ornamental hunting and tavern tankards embellished with applied sprigs of hounds and huntsmen among trees and houses and relief portraits of Queen Anne or panels depicting drinking parties. Despite the modern enthusiasm for these highly complex wares, there is scant evidence to suggest their presence in early America. Among the as yet unpublished finds from the Drummond plantation are shards of a tankard made in London about 1710 ornamented with sprig-applied tree trunks and pricked-pad leafage very similar to this example. Such tankards are considered to be the precursors of the more elaborately decorated hunting mugs.
Markings"AR" crowned within a conforming shield
ProvenanceSampson and Horne Antiques, Ltd., London, England

Exhibition(s)