Quart basin

Date1750-1800

Maker Semper Eadem makers

MediumPewter

DimensionsOH: 1 15/16"; Diam (rim): 8"' W (rim): 3/8"

Credit LineAcquisition funded by The Antique Collectors' Guild in memory of William Kayhoe

Object number1988-237

DescriptionPewter basin.
Label TextBasins are certainly among the most ubiquitous of American pewter hollowware forms during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They served a multitude of purposes. Those of eight inches in diameter and smaller primarily served as individual eating bowls or as waste or slop bowls in the service of tea, while larger examples were most often used as wash basins.

Students of eighteenth-century American pewter have long pondered the identity of the makers from Boston who marked their wares with the Semper Eadem touches. A considerable number of plates, dishes, and basins survive by these still unidentified makers. Various candidates include Robert Bonygne, Thomas Green, John Holyoke, Thomas Simpkins, and John Skinner.

InscribedNone
MarkingsTouch mark a rose with a crown above framed by "SEMPER" within an arched reserve above supported on a column to either side with "EADEM" within an rectangular reserve below on interior center-bottom of body (Laughlin 290).
ProvenanceVendor: John Carl Thomas, Hanover, Connecticut, with funds given by the Antique Collectors Guild in memory of William Kayhoe of Richmond, Virginia, former President of the Pewter Collectors Club of America.