Flagon

Maker: Johann Christoph Heyne (American, born Germany, 1715–1781)

1771

American Decorative Arts

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

Johann Christoph Heyne, the maker of this flagon, was a native of Germany who worked in Stockholm before immigrating to America and settling in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The flagon was made for a Lutheran church in the Lancaster area. Heyne was a Moravian minister who possibly specialized in liturgical wares since all his surviving pewter was made for churches. The Yale University Art Gallery also owns a covered chalice by him. The applied midband and the cast hollow handle of the flagon are evidence of the predominately English culture within which Heyne worked in the New World. The flagon therefore underscores the ethnic complexity of colonial America.

Medium

Pewter

Dimensions

11 1/4 × 7 5/16 × 6 5/16 in. (28.6 × 18.5 × 16 cm)
base: 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm)
rim: 3 7/16 in. (8.7 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.725

Geography

Made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

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
Howard Reifsnyder (1869–1929), Philadelphia. Francis P. Garvan, New York to 1930; 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), 35, no. 7, ill
  • Elise K. Kenney, ed., Handbook of the Collections: Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 114, ill
  • Gerald W. R. Ward, "American Pewter, Brass, and Iron in the Yale University Art Gallery," Antiques (June 1980), 1306, pl. 3, ill
  • Alan Shestack et al., Francis P. Garvan, Collector, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1980), 36–39, fig. 8
  • Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia E. Kane, eds., American Art: 1750–1800 Towards Independence, exh. cat. (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), 228–29, fig. 199
  • John Carter, "A Checklist of the Extant Pewter of Johann Christoph Heyne," Pewter Collectors' Club of America 7, no. 1 (December 1974), 29, no. 40
  • Ledlie I. Laughlin, Pewter in America: Its Makers and Their Marks, Volume III (Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishers, 1971), 123–30
  • Graham Hood, American Pewter: Garvan and Other Collections at Yale (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1965), 7, 51–52, no. 186, ill
  • Ledlie I. Laughlin, Pewter in America: Its Makers and Their Marks, 2 vols. (Boston: Barre Publishers, 1940), vol. 2, p. 44, ill
  • John J. Evans Jr., "I.C.H., Lancaster Pewterer," Antiques 20, no. 3 (September 1931), 150–53, fig. 4
  • American Art Association, New York, Colonial Furniture: The Superb Collection of the Late Howard Reifsnyder, sale cat. (April 24–27, 1929), 56–57, fig. 231
  • Homer Eaton Keyes, "The Frontispiece," Antiques 13, no. 2 (February 1928), 112–13, frontispiece, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

flagons

Marks

Laughlin marks 530 and 532

Inscriptions

"P M D K" is engraved on base; "for / The Peters Kirche / in Mount Joy Town Ship / von John Dirr / 1771" engraved on body

Technical metadata and APIs

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