Flat Lid Tankard
Dateca.1761-1793
Maker
Henry Will
MediumPewter
DimensionsHeight: 7 1/16”; Width: 7”; Diameter of foot: 5”
Credit LineGift of Scott and Debra Duncan
Object number2022-199
DescriptionTankard of tapering cylindrical form with an applied molded base, a molded lip, and a hollow scrolled handle with a hooded-ball terminal. An integral hinge atop the handle connects it to a stepped flat lid, incised with three concentric sets of double lines, and opened by a chair-back thumb piece. The bottom of the lid is embellished by a shaped projecting flange.Label TextIn New York, the somewhat old-fashioned flat lid tankard remained popular until the end of the 18th century. With its decorative lip on the front of the lid one can argue that the form is very attractive, even if not totally current. Perhaps this phenomenon has to do with the persistence of conservative Dutch culture and tastes in New York, and that fact that the maker of this fine tankard is believed to have been born in what is now Germany. Henry Will became a freeman of New York City in 1765 and was thereafter active in local leadership. He served for four years as fireman of the Dock Ward, where his shop at "The Sign of the Block-tin Teapot" was located before the Revolution. Will moved upriver to Albany, where he'd done much business previously, to avoid life in British-occupied New York City, signaling his alignment with the American cause. By the mid-1780s he had returned to his adopted home town and resumed pewtering, in addition to diverse civic and mercantile activities. It is believed he left the pewter trade in the mid-1790s, and disappears from the record in 1802. Today, pieces of Henry Will's pewter are considered to be amongst the most desirable by collectors.Mark(s)Inside bottom struck with Will's four pseudo-hallmarks (Laughlin-491). Of these, only a portion of the "Seated Britannia" mark is partially visible.ProvenanceEx. Coll.: Frank Powell
1700-1720
