In the eighteenth century, the New York tankard retained the slightly tapered sides and flat lid introduced during the previous century. Cast ornaments and profuse engraving, favored earlier, were virtually eliminated. The vessel, responding to a Late Baroque aesthetic, now introduces a simplicity of line and uninterrupted surface. A coin incorporated into the vessel's lid, the principal ornament, perpetuates a northern European tradition.

Technical notes: The handle is assembled with an air vent located beneath the upper section and in the cherub’s-head terminal. The coin depicts the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and was minted at Kremnitz between 1691 and 1693.

Related examples: Miller 1937b, pp. 4, 46, no. 34; Buhler and Hood 1970, vol. 2, pp. 71, 73, no. 622; Puig et al. 1989, p. 224, no. 184, with a related coin attached to its lid.

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.