This porringer belongs to a group of crown-handle porringers that are distinguished by the initials cast on their handles. Marked examples are recorded with the letters RG, SG, GS, WN, DN over 1844, and IC. It is believed that these markings refer to Boston pewterers or mold makers; however, efforts to identify them have not proved convincing.

Related examples: Fairbanks 1974, pp. 84, 115, no. 319; Blaney 1983, pp. 288–98 (the Bayou Bend porringer relates to C-3-B, figs. 7A–D). 

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.