Public presentations of silver were made to honor heroes of the War of 1812 such as George Armistead, Jacob Brown, Isaac Hull, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Decatur, and others. This pair of cups formed part of a fifty-three-piece service given to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry by the citizens of Boston. Their unusual barrel-like contour and gadrooned foot band must have been intended to complement the set’s wine coolers.

Technical notes: The gadrooned feet and body are a seamed construction.

Related examples:  These came from a set of twenty-four tumblers; another pair belongs to the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (acc. no. M23, 294–5). A fifth cup was auctioned at Christie’s, New York sale 7624, January 22, 1993, lot 78.

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.