Lot 316: A FINE AND RARE SILVER TANKARD

Mark of Nathaniel Hurd, Boston, circa 1760 Pear-shaped on a molded circular footrim, with applied mid-band, the domed hinged cover with openwork scroll thumbpiece, the tubular scroll spout with baluster drop under hinge and plain circular terminal, the front engraved with an impaled coat-of-arms within a rococo cartouche surrounded by sprays of flowers and surmounted by a basket of flowers, marked near handle with Kane mark B 81/4in. high; 28oz. PROVENANCE By descent to Mrs. Henry Cannon Clark, Pride's Crossing, Massachusetts, 1939 Mrs. Malcolm Stuart, daughter, then by descent to the present owner LITERATURE Patricia Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 620. Hollis French, Jacob Hurd and His Sons, 1972, cat. no. 318b. NOTES Nathaniel Hurd (1729-1777), son of the prolific silversmith Jacob Hurd, was famed as an engraver of bookplates, trade cards and prints. A cup and cover by Hurd is engraved with the Whitechurch arms within a similar rococo cartouche flanked by sprays of flowers (French, cat. no. 30). About 50 examples of Hurd's work survive, and only one other tankard is known, that made for Prudence Stoddard circa 1760 and now in the Wadsworth Atheneum. Pear-shaped tankards are extremely rare among New England silver.