- Cann
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About 1720 the shape of the can began to evolve from a cylindrical form into a curvilinear contour corresponding with the Late Baroque aesthetic. The earliest version of this type, while retaining its cylindrical shape, is rounded at the base, with a cast handle substituted for the earlier strap or two-part handle. Although this design is not represented in Bayou Bend’s collection, this slightly later can by Jacob Hurd is related. It combines a cylindrical neck with a bulbous lower body. Its diminutive size identifies it as a half-pint can, to use a term of the period.
Technical notes: The body is raised, the foot and vented handle are cast.
Related examples: A mate is recorded in American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, sale 4314, April 2–3, 1937, pp. 90–91, lot 281, purchased by the Detroit Institute of Arts (acc. no. 37.143). Kane 1998, pp. 588–91, lists fifty-five examples.
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.
ProvenanceBy tradition, Joshua Peirce (1670–1742/43), Portsmouth, New Hampshire; given to his son Daniel Peirce (1709–1773); given to his son John Peirce (1746–1814); given to his son Daniel Hall Peirce (1801–1877); by descent to Joseph P. Peirce; [Rudolph P. Pauly, Boston, 1939]; 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.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
On base: full name stamp of Jacob Hurd [Buhler and Hood 1970, vol. I, p. 327, nos. 157, 160]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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