A geometric porringer handle exhibiting a more complex configuration was introduced during the final quarter of the seventeenth century. This pattern, composed of circular, crescent, tablet, cross, and quatrefoil piercings, is based on contemporary English examples. In addition to William Cowell, Sr., craftsmen working throughout the principal urban centers, also produced this design (see B.69.93).

Technical notes: The bowl is raised up, and the handle cast. The center point may be obliterated by Cowell's stamp. 

Related examples:  Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, sale 971, May 14–15, 1948, lot 206.

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.