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Banded "Swedish-style" Tankard

Dateca.1817-1822

Maker Robert Palethorp, Jr.

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumPewter

DimensionsHeight: 7 1/2”; Width: 6 7/8”; Diameter of foot: 4 5/8”

Credit LineGift of Scott and Debra Duncan

Object number2022-200

DescriptionTankard of tapering cylindrical form with an applied molded base, a molded lip, and three courses of turned-in banding. A hollow scrolled handle with a hooded-ball terminal connects to an integral hinge which connects it to a double-domed lid with a milled-edge top. The lid is opened by a chair-back thumb piece.
Label TextSo-called "Swedish" pewter tankards are unique to Philadelphia, and date from the end of the form's reign over drinking vessels. While "banded" or 'hooped" tankards, usually of silver, had been around for decades these distinctive vessels combine a number of traditional Anglo-American features with those popular in Scandinavia. Created from a heavy casting, the body was then turned on a lathe and the bands were cut in, meant to recall the coopered wooden tankards popular in places like Sweden.

This example carries the mark of Robert Palethorp, Jr., but the molds its components were cast from had been previously used by earlier Philadelphia pewtersmiths like the anonymous "Love" group of makers. In fact, two of those believed to have used the mark, Abraham Hasselberg and his son-in-law John Andrew Brunstrom, were of Swedish decent and made tankards of this general form. After the latter died in during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, it is believed his molds passed to Parks Boyd, and from thence to Palethorp upon Boyd's death in 1819. This example is believed to be the only surviving "Swedish" pewter tankard by Robert Palethorp, Jr.
MarkingsInside bottom struck with "R • PALETHORP" over "PHILADA" in relief within a shaped cartouche (60% readable - Laughlin-559a).