Cann
- Cann
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Today the term "mug” describes silver vessels with straight or slightly tapered sides, while the word “can” denotes the same form but with a pear-shaped body. During the colonial period these terms were used interchangeably. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the form evolved into an upward-tapering cylinder with a hollow handle, of which the Bayou Bend can is one of the earliest datable examples.
Technical notes: The can is raised with a two-part handle, which is attached to a small disk above the base molding.
Related examples: This is the only Oliver can recorded. Vessels engraved with these same arms include Puig et al. 1989, pp. 239–40, no. 196; Antiques 138 (July 1990), p. 92; Quimby 1995, pp. 133–34, no. 91.
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
ProvenanceHermann F. and Dorothy Locke Clarke, 1941; purchased by Richard Loeb, New Jersey; [Ginsburg and Levy, New York, 1951]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1953; given to MFAH, 1969.
Published References Warren, David B. Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975, p. 151, no. 280; Quimby, Ian M. G, with Dianne Johnson. American Silver at Winterthur. Winterthur: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1995, p. 134; Kane, Patricia E., ed. Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers: A Biographical Dictionary Based on the Notes of Francis Hill Bigelow and John Marshall Phillips. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998, p. 742. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved on side: the Howard arms
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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