Porringer

Date1774-1809

Artist/Maker Gershom Jones

MediumPewter

DimensionsOH: 1 15/16"; OL: 7 15/16"; Diam (rim): 5 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1950-916

DescriptionPorringer, wide circular bowl of squat proportion with slightly-everted straight-sided rim on short convex body with flat base domed in center; cast openwork handle soldered to body below rim at an angle slightly above horizontal.
Label TextEven though England's mercantile policy encouraged American colonists to export raw materials and to import English finished goods, American artisans produced an amazing array of household furnishings with a distinctive character all their own. Porringers, like many other objects in a range of materials, are often recognizable as coming from a particular shop, town, or region. Masters taught their apprentices both the way objects were made and how they should appear, and customers acquired objects of a familiar appearance that they both wished to live with and knew would meet with social approval. Buying a tried and true pattern of porringer could be just as fashionable a choice in its time and place as one of a newer design. The use of expensive copper alloy moulds also encouraged a reluctance to change popular patterns.

Gershom Jones was born in Somers, Connecticut, in 1751. After completing his apprenticeship, probably with John Danforth of Norwich, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island in the early 1770s, where he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Samuel Hamlin I. Jones probably learned of porringers with this handsome type of "flowered" handle from Hamlin, who is thought to have brought the pattern to Rhode Island from Connecticut just shortly before. At the time of Jones's death in 1809, the inventory of his estate contained "30 wine-pint porringers." He is known to have made porringers in four sizes.

InscribedNone
MarkingsTouch mark a lion rampant facing right on a wreath bar with "G" to the left and "I" to the right within an outlined circle on upper face of handle (Laughlin 341).
ProvenanceVendor: Dr. Percy E. Raymond, Lexington, Massachusetts; 1950-916

Exhibition(s)