Flagon

Date1767-1798

Artist/Maker John Heaney

MediumPewter

DimensionsOH: 11 7/16"; Diam (cover): 4 13/16"; Diam (base): 7 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2000-78

Descriptionflagon
Label TextRelatively few hollowware forms in Irish pewter survive in significant numbers. Of these, flagons are the most distinctive. This example is thoroughly representative of the standard eighteenth-century model. Its body of these proportions with its domed and spreading base clearly derives from English flagons of the mid-seventeenth century of "beefeater" type (see accessions 1958-591 and 1960-795). The Irish also spouted most of their flagons with pronounced articulation to the pointed bottom ends of the spouts. Covers on early examples are sometimes reminiscent of "beefeater" shapes, but most eighteenth-century examples are of this double-domed form. What is most distinctive are the expressively curved handles in the form of a question mark, often described as being of "spring" type. The continuation of the handle beyond its upper join with the body is again borrowed from early flagons, but it is consistently done in this later Irish context with a sense of exaggeration and panache all its own.

Marked Irish flagons are uncommon. Even if they have all of the appropriate details, if they are unmarked, one cannot be certain of their origin, for Bristol makers produced flagons of this type for export to Ireland.
InscribedNone
MarkingsTouchmark of an embowed arm upholding a dagger with IOHN and HEANEY within curved reserves above and below and fronds to either side on interior center-bottom of base (Cotterell, Old Pewter, 2242; Hall, Irish Pewter, 215)

ProvenancePurchased from David S. Moulson, Alcester, Warwkickshire.