- Porringer
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Since 1300 the English have used hallmarks to identify a silversmith’s shop, along with the city of origin and the date of manufacture, and to ensure the quality of the alloy used. In colonial America this system was never instituted, yet craftsmen occasionally struck a series of their own stamps to suggest English hallmarks, which may explain why this porringer is struck five times with John Edwards's mark.
Technical notes: The bowl is raised, and the handle cast.
Related examples: Avery 1920, pp. 44, 46, nos. 29–30; Quimby 1995, pp. 95–96, nos. 52, 53; and an unpublished example at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
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.
Provenance[Robert Ensko, New York, 1954]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1954; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
To right of handle: mark of John Edwards [three times] [Buhler and Hood 1970, vol. I, p. 325, nos. 66–73]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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