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Thomas Robie's “Donum Pupillorum” Tankard

Dateca. 1717

Maker Benjamin Hiller (ca.1687-1745)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Boston

MediumSilver

DimensionsHeight: 7 1/2"; Width: 7" across handle and mouth; Diameter of foot: 5"; Weight: 24 troy oz.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2025-131

DescriptionTankard of tapering cylindrical form with an applied molded base, and a hollow scrolled handle ending in an ovoid disc cast with a facing grotesque (perhaps framed within a rope border). A pendant drop motif atop the handle extends from the integral hinge which connects it to a stepped and double-domed lid. The lid is capped by a small turned finial and is opened by a double-scroll thumb piece. Engraved on the front of the body is a gift inscription and the recipient's name.Label TextAt the beginning of the 18th century, Benjamin Hiller entered into an apprenticeship under silversmith John Coney, virtually ensuring he was going to be trained to the highest standards then practiced in Boston. This transitional tankard, wrought about 1717 when Hiller was about thirty years old, bears this out. Though it retains some of the features of the late 17th century-styled flat lid tankard, it clearly exhibits prototypical features which would fully evolve on Boston tankards of the next two decades.

It's double-domed lid is pleasingly crisp and well molded, though it retains the low profile of earlier tankard lids. It's almost-straight sided body is reminiscent of the previous style, and lacks the low-set banding which would shortly become common on the form. It seems to be straining to attain a greater height, which tankards of the 1730s would establish as the norm.

Mushy in detail, the grotesque masque capping the lower terminal of the handle looks to have been cast using a previously-existing object as a model. It bears a striking resemblance to the masque cast into the counterguards of a peculiar brass-hilted naval cutlass produced for the Tower of London circa 1690-1710. These made it to the American colonies in substantial numbers, and turn up in the archaeological record spanning from Alabama to Nova Scotia. An example of the type, exhibiting a masque in crisp detail, is accession number 2014-210 in Colonial Williamsburg's collection.

In addition to being a dated early American tankard of an interesting form, it also promises to divulge some secrets. Engraved with the date 1717 and the inscription "Donum Pupillorum," Latin for "the gift of the pupils," it stands as a memento of the high regard a group of Harvard students had for their instructor, Thomas Robie. Who were these grateful, admiring pupils?

Born in Boston in 1686, Robie attended Harvard, eventually earning a Master of Arts in 1713. Becoming a tutor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the college, Robie's studies included meteorology, astronomy, and medicine. In early February, 1723 Robie moved to Salem, Massachusetts, where he died in 1729, and the age of only 40.

His silver tankard, the earliest New England-made example in the Foundation's collection, stands now as fitting and beautiful epitaph to the life of a well-respected and civic-minded scientist, whose life ended too soon.Inscription(s)Front of the body is engraved "Thomas Robie" in later script, above “Donum Pupillorum," above "1717."Mark(s)Bottom struck with BH above a pair of addorsed crescents, all in relief within a shield-shaped reserve (worn - only the upright of the 'B' is visible).ProvenanceWunsch American Foundation