Isaac Anthony
Tankard

MakerAmerican, 1690–1773
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tankard
Datec. 1711–1740
Possible placeSwansea, Massachusetts, United States
Made inNewport, Rhode Island, United States
Possible placeBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumSilver
Dimensions9 3/8 × 5 5/8 × 7 3/4 in. (23.8 × 14.3 × 19.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.106
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Metals Study Room
Exposé

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Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This tankard attests to the level of sophistication that Rhode Island silversmiths achieved by the early eighteenth century.  Isaac Anthony apprenticed and began his career in Boston, and the Bayou Bend tankard evinces a design influence from that town. It also contrasts markedly with the earlier examples, notably in its domed lid and flame finial, a stylistic incongruity explained simply as a replacement. The tankard’s popularity declined by the century’s end as wine and spirits replaced beer, cider, and ale as the beverages of choice.

Technical notes: A disk is intended to strengthen the body at its juncture with the lower handle. The scrolled thumbpiece is embellished on the back with an acanthus leaf. The domed lid and soldered finial are later additions, as corroborated by the presence of two rather than one set of thumbpiece impressions on the handle. The results of a nondestructive energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (on file at Bayou Bend) confirm this alteration and suggest it was done at an early date.

Related examples: Gourley 1965, no. 221; Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, sale 4113, April 25–26, 1978, lot 641. The Bayou Bend tankard's engraving relates to that on the latter as well as to that on a tankard and a can by Samuel Vernon (Buhler and Hood 1970, vol. 1, pp. 273–75, no. 459; Gourley 1965, no. 307). Another engraved tankard, marked by John Coney and made for the Cranston family of Rhode Island, may have inspired the engraving on the Anthony and Vernon silver (Fairbanks et al. 1981, p. 627).

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.


ProvenanceThe tankard descended in the Thompson family of Connecticut to William Abdial Thompson (1762–1847), Thompsonville, New York; Thompson descendants, Philadelphia; purchased by Edward Eastman Minor (1876–1953), Mount Carmel, Connecticut; given to his daughter Margaret Eastman Minor Prince (1913–1968), Chevy Chase, Maryland; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1954; given to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition History"Theta Charity Antiques Show", Albert Thomas Convention Center, Houston, September 25–29, 1985 (LN:85.31)
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved on side: the Arnold arms
Engraved on handle: B and E, below, the latter worn and difficult to decipher, and a top initial that is completely obliterated
Engraved on terminal: March ye[e superscript] 25th 1727
Engraved on base: oz = d / 31 = 4
Left of handle: IA in an oval, mark of Isaac Anthony [Flynt and Fales 1968, p. 145]
On handle: I. ANTHONY in a rectangle, mark of Isaac Anthony [Flynt and Fales 1968, p. 145]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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