Communion Cup Maker: John Hull (American, born England, 1624–1683)
Maker: Robert Sanderson (American, born England, 1608–1693)

1664–70

American Decorative Arts

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

Thomas Willet, the son of an English clergyman, was part of the Great Migration of Protestants who fled repression in England after breaking with the Church of England and its rituals, which retained overtones of Roman Catholicism. He joined the exodus to Leiden and then came to Plymouth Plantation in about 1630. In his will, made in 1671, he stipulated bequests to three Massachusetts churches: the Congregational churches at Plymouth and Rehoboth, and the Baptist church at Swansea. The church at Rehoboth used its bequest to acquire this Communion cup by John Hull and Robert Sanderson, the earliest silversmiths to work in New England. The form is based on a simple domestic cup for drinking wine or beer and is engraved with a diminutive inscription commemorating Willet. Although it is devoid of excess ornament, it is still well proportioned and has a sophisticated baluster stem. The cup suited the plainness espoused by New England Protestants for their Communion services.

Medium

Silver

Dimensions

H. 7 5/16 × Diam. 4 1/4 in. (18.6 × 10.8 cm), 12 oz., 17 dwt. (398 g)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1936.137

Geography

Made in Boston, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

17th century

Classification

Containers

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Originally owned by Capt. Thomas Willet; Newman Congregational Church, East Providence, R. I.; Francis P. Garvan, New York (1936). Gift in 1936 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 30, no. 2, ill
  • Jeannine Falino and Gerald W. R. Ward, eds., New England Silver and Silversmithing 1620-1815 (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston, 2001), 113–114, fig. 1
  • Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 98–99, fig. 90
  • Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 571, 886
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 99, ill
  • Harold Newman, An Illustrated Dictionary of Silverware (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987), 260, ill
  • Graham Hood, American Silver: A History of Style, 1650–1900 (New York: Praeger, 1971), 24–25, 28, fig. 3
  • Martha Gandy Fales, Early American Silver for the Cautious Collector (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970), 7, fig. 3
  • Kathryn C. Buhler and Graham Hood, American Silver in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970), vol. 1, p. 4, no. 2, ill
  • John Marshall Phillips, Early American Silver Selected from the Mabel Garvan Collection, Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1960), no. 2, ill
  • John Marshall Phillips, "The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection of Silver at Yale University," Connoisseur Year Book (1953), 68, pl. 2, ill
  • John Marshall Phillips, "Masterpieces in American Silver in Public Collections: Part III, Ecclesiastical Silver," Antiques 55, no. 4 (April 1949), 281, ill
  • Hermann F. Clarke, John Hull, A Builder of a Bay Colony (Portland, Maine: The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1940), 124–25, no. 18, ill
  • John Marshall Phillips, Masterpieces of New England Silver, 1650–1800: An Exhibition Held June 18 through September 10, 1939, Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1939), 55, no. 116, fig. 10
  • John Marshall Phillips, "Additions to the Garvan Collection of Silver," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 8, no. 1 (June 1937), 3–4, ill
  • Clara Louise Avery, Early American Silver (New York: The Century Co., 1930), 24, 100, pl. 2, ill
  • Francis H. Bigelow, Historic Silver of the Colonies and Its Makers (New York: MacMillan Company, 1917), 43, fig. 7
  • E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches (Letchworth, England: National Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1913), 162, pl. 57, ill
  • George Munson Curtis and Florence Virginia Berger, American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911), 69, no. 588
  • John Henry Buck, Old Plate, Its Makers and Marks, 2d ed. (New York: Gorham Manufacturing Company, 1903), 256–57, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Marks

"RS" under rose in conforming punch and "IH" under pellets in punch curved below initials (on side)

Inscriptions

"Capt. Willets' donation to / ye. Ch: of Rehoboth. 1674" engraved on side

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