Beaker

Maker: Unknown

ca. 1680

American Decorative Arts

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

In 1634 the First Congregational Church of Ipswich, Massachusetts, became the twelfth church to be built on New England soil. Sunday observance and churchgoing were enforced by law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, the general congregation began to take communion out in the pews, where beakers were passed among parishioners, as opposed to taking it one at a time from a chalice at the altar, as was done in Catholic and Anglican churches. This practice necessitated that Puritan churches have multiple communion vessels. Between about 1693 and 1730, parishioners gave or bequeathed the church in Ipswich money to acquire beakers to serve communion. Each beaker bore the donor’s name and occasionally the date of the gift. The Gallery owns eleven beakers from the church in Ipswich (see inv. nos. 1930.1183–1184 and 1930.1241–1249). This example was given to the church by Sarah Hall. Like much Puritan silver, the design of the beaker rejected the ostentatiousness of the Church of England and instead was modeled on a more humble domestic drinking form.

Medium

Silver

Dimensions

6 5/8 × 4 5/8 in. (16.8 × 11.7 cm, 338 g)
base: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.1241

Geography

Made in New England

Culture

American or British

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
Probably purchased with a bequest from Sarah Cocking Hall (about 1612–1680) by the First Congregational Church, Ipswich, Mass., about 1680 [see note 1] (consigned to Ralph W. Burnham [1876–1938], Ipswich, Mass., 1922); sold through Ralph W. Burham to Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York, 1923; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930

Note 1: Sarah Cocking Hall was the widow of merchant Samuel Hall (about 1610–1679), who lived in Ipswich in the 1630s before helping found Salisbury, Mass., and then traveled between the colonies and Langdon, Essex. Both Halls died in Langdon and their wills left bequests to causes, churches, and relatives in the colonies, including through Sarah’s co-executor “Thomas Glover, a New England merchant” (copies of wills in curatorial object file). The beaker was likely acquired in London and delivered to the Ipswich church, and is likely the item referenced in Thomas Knoulton’s 1692 will that gave funds to make “a piece of silver similar to the one then being used” (Buhler & Hood, cat. 543). Silver authority Arthur Grimwade recorded a similar maker’s mark on a London tankard from 1680 (letter in curatorial object file).
Bibliography
  • 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. 315, no. 543, ill
  • "Advertisement," Antiques 2 (November 1922), 196
  • E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches (Letchworth, England: National Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1913), 226, pl. 78, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

beakers (drinking vessels)

Marks

"CK", two pellets, with lozenge between, below, in shield on bottom

Inscriptions

"The Gift of Mrs. Sarah Hall" engraved in script

Technical metadata and APIs

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