Thomas Danforth Boardman
Porringer

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Porringer
Datec. 1810–1830
Made inHartford, Connecticut, United States
MediumPewter
Dimensions1 7/8 × 5 3/16 × 7 3/8 in. (4.8 × 13.2 × 18.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.56.186.1
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Pine Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The crown-handle porringer, as its emblematic design suggests, is patterned after English examples. In the American colonies this motif was probably produced first during the mid-eighteenth century by a group of New York pewterers and subsequently by their Boston, Newport, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania counterparts. The political disparity between England and its American colonies does not seem to have impacted the royalist symbol’s acceptance, for pewterers, such as the Boardmans, continued to find a market for it among the newly independent Americans.

Related examples: Winchester et al. 1959, p. 188, no. 4; Hood 1965. pp. 24, 27, nos. 90, 109; Kernan, Ross, and Eilers 1969, pp. 26, 59, no. 65; Fairbanks 1974, p. 35, no. 124; Montgomery 1978, p. 146, no. 9–1.

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.


ProvenancePossibly [Thomas D. and Constance R. Williams, Litchfield, Connecticut]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1956; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
"TB & SB" struck on the upper side of the handle.
On upper side of handle: mark of Thomas D. and Sherman Boardman, Hartford, 1810–1830 [Laughlin 1940, vol. I, pl. LVII, no. 429]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Porringer
Thomas Danforth Boardman
c. 1810–1830
Pewter
B.58.99
Porringer
IC
c. 1750–1850
Pewter
B.69.241
Saucer
Thomas Danforth, III
c. 1777–1820
Pewter
B.60.73
Dish
Thomas Danforth, II
c. 1755–1782
Pewter
B.60.71
Saucer
Thomas Danforth, III
c. 1777–1820
Pewter
B.60.76
Beaker
Thomas Danforth, III
c. 1777–1818
Pewter
B.60.62
Cann
Thomas Danforth, II
c. 1755–1818
Pewter
B.69.25
Porringer
Samuel Danforth
c. 1795–1816
Pewter
B.58.97
Teapot
Boardman & Company
c. 1825–1827
Pewter
B.60.77
Flagon
Boardman & Company
c. 1825–1827
Pewter and wood
B.53.10
Porringer
Samuel Ely Hamlin
c. 1801–1820
Pewter
B.58.98
Plate
Joseph Danforth, Sr.
c. 1779
Pewter
B.2006.16