Tankard Maker: Peter Van Dyck (American, 1684–1751)

ca. 1705–15

American Decorative Arts

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

The combination of cast, chased, and engraved decoration make this one of the most elaborate of all American tankards. No other New York tankard of the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century approaches its monumental aspect. Silversmiths tended to employ gadrooned or engraved ornament on tankard lids, but here Peter Van Dyck uses both processes to render geometric and foliate details in both two and three dimensions. The front of the tankard is engraved with a complex cartouche containing the arms of the Wendell family. The initials on the handle—"HAW"—stand for Harmanus (1678–1731) and Anna (Glen) Wendell (1677–1756), who were married in 1699. Harmanus was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Albany from 1728 to 1731.

Medium

Silver

Dimensions

7 3/16 × 5 7/16 in. (18.3 × 13.8 cm), 35 oz., 6 dwt. (1097 g)
other (Lip): 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.1067

Geography

Made in New York, New York

Culture

American

Period

18th 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
Made for Harmanus Wendell (1678–1731) and Anna (Glen) Wendell (1677–1756), Albany, NY; descended in the Wendell family; purchased by R.T. Haines Halsey (1865–1942), New York, NY, before 1911–29; purchased by Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York, NY, 1929–30; gift to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930
Bibliography
  • Natalie Zemon Davis, Marybeth De Filippis, and Joyce D. Goodfriend, Dutch New York Between East and West: The World of Margrieta van Varick, exh. cat. (New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2009), 315–16, no. 161, fig. 161a, 161b, 161c
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 102, ill
  • Graham Hood, American Silver: A History of Style, 1650–1900 (New York: Praeger, 1971), 72, 74–75, fig. 60, 61
  • Martha Gandy Fales, Early American Silver for the Cautious Collector (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970), 14–15, fig. 13
  • 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, pp. 40–41, no. 187, ill
  • Kathryn C. Buhler, Colonial Silversmiths, Masters and Apprentices, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956), 87, no. 259
  • John Marshall Phillips, "Masterpieces in American Silver in Public Collections: Part II, 1700–1750," Antiques 55, no. 2 (February 1949), 116, ill
  • John Marshall Phillips, "Outstanding Examples from the Mabel Brady Garvan Collections," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 8, no. 2 (February 1938), 39, ill
  • V. Isabelle Miller, Silver by New York Makers, Late 17th Century to 1900, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of the City of New York, 1937), 34, 69, no. 337
  • Katherine B. Hastings, "Peter Van Dyck of New York, Goldsmith part I," Antiques 31 (May 1937), 237, fig. 5
  • R. T. Haines Halsey and Elizabeth Tower, The Homes of Our Ancestors as Shown in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1935), 258–59, fig. 209
  • Clara Louise Avery, An Exhibition of Early New York Silver, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931), fig. 85, 98
  • Clara Louise Avery, Early American Silver (New York: The Century Co., 1930), 141, 155, 264, fig. 20
  • R. T. Haines Halsey, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Silver in New York, New Jersey, and the South, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1911), 59, no. 126, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

tankard

Marks

"PVD" in trefoil, at lip on each side of handle

Inscriptions

Wendell arms and crest, in scrolled acanthus cartouche with swags of fruit below, engraved on front; "HAW" below swags on handle

Technical metadata and APIs

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