The tankard is recorded in England by the thirteenth century, and it must have been among the earliest forms fashioned by American silversmiths. Patterned after English examples, this early type is characterized by sharp, vertically oriented sides, generous, sweeping handles, cusped thumbpieces, and the practical addition of a rat-tail body drop strengthening the juncture between handle and body. The Bayou Bend tankard masterfully incorporates all of these elements, integrating them with Early Baroque motifs such as the lip crenellation and the gadrooning.

Technical notes: The body and lid are raised, the two-part handle has air vents on either side at the top and a shield-shaped terminal. The lid is attached by a five-part hinge, and the thumbpiece cast.

Related examples:  Dummer tankards with gadrooned lids include Jones 1913, p. 380, pl. CXVII, no. 2; Clarke and Foote 1935, no. 92, pl. XVII; Hanks 1971, pp. 277, 279–80, no. 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.