Expensive molds were required for casting pewter. As a consequence the forms evolved gradually, if at all. Whitmore and Thomas Danforth, II, jointly owned a number of molds, a practical, albeit rarely documented, arrangement. Danforth bequeathed his interest to his oldest sons, Thomas, III, and Joseph. The close similarity between Whitmore's and the Danforths’ cans (see, for example, B.69.25, B.60.65) may be explained by the fact that as many as four different pewterers could have used these molds.

Related examples: Hood 1965, p. 14, no. 10.

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.