Description:
Silver tankard with cover marked "IE" crowned above a fleur-de-lis in shaped punch for John Edwards (c.1671-1746), and engraved with the engraved coat of arms of the Parks family of Massachusetts ("gules on a pale argent 3 bucks heads cabossed"). According to earlier genealogical research (see data file), this tankard was probably ordered by Richard Parks (1667-1725) of Concord, Massachusetts, who was born in England and married Elizabeth Billings Hastings (1669-1756) of Concord in 1660, or possibly by one of their sons, Ephraim Parks (b.1710) of Concord who married Mary Hobbs (c.1711) of Weston on March 11, 1732/33. In 1930, the dealer, Gebelein Silversmiths of East Arlington, Vermont, purchased the tankard from Nellie B. Parks, the wife of William Howe Austin Parks (1845-1911), a direct descendent of Richard and Ephraim Parks. Although they were used to drink ales and other alcoholic beverages, tankards primarily served as decorative status symbols in the home. In a Puritan meetinghouse, tankards appeared in the communion service to pour and drink wine. John Edwards also made a silver beaker (HD 97.60.8) that Samuel Barnard (1684-1762) gave to the First Church of Deerfield in 1723. The tankard has a stepped and domed, five-part hinged lid with an applied button-and-ball shaped finial and incised line decoration near edge; cast relief scroll thumbpiece applied to the lid; s-scrolled hollow handle with an applied circular bottom terminal; and cylindrical slightly tapering body and molded and triple reeded base band and a simple molded rim band.
Tags:
ceremonies Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+97.6.6 |
