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2022-176, Porringer
"Boteh" Handle Porringer
2022-176, Porringer

"Boteh" Handle Porringer

Dateca.1780-1820
OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Boston (Possibly)
MediumPewter
DimensionsOverall: 7 3/16”; Diameter at rim: 4 5/8”; Height: 1 11/16”
Credit LineGift of Scott and Debra Duncan
Object number2022-176
DescriptionPewter porringer with a "boteh" handle composed of foliage scrolling around a stylized shield and lightened by sixteen apertures. The handle is ribbed on the bottom and supported by a triangular bracket. Its bellied bowl has an everted rim, a raised boss at the bottom, and a linen mark where the handle joins it.
Label TextClearly related to the "flowered" handle porringers commonly made in New England between about 1750 and 1840, those with handles like this have been styled "boteh" in recent years. All known American examples come from the same two molds, and only one maker-marked marked example has been noted to date. Thought to have been made in the Boston area at the end of the 18th century or early in the 19th century, the form of the handle is much older. Colonial Williamsburg owns an English example (1983-202) of this design which dates to ca.1620-1640.