A Silver Tankard, probably Bermuda or Jamaica, maker's mark ?NQ, Circa 1700

While the overall shape of this tankard and its wrigglework bands look to New York examples of circa 1700, the lion thumbpiece, extensive cut-card work, and other details have few known parallels in mainland Colonial American silver. The lion thumbpiece is known on only two other Colonial tankards, both Boston circa 1685: one by Jeremiah Dummer (illustrated Martha Gandy Fales, Early American Silver For the Cautious Collector, New York, 1970, pp. 50-51, fig. 46) and one by Timothy Dwight (illustrated F. Bigelow, "Early New England Silver," Early American Silver and its Makers, New York, 1979, p. 55, fig. 1). The strongest options are Bermuda or Jamaica; documents attest to tankards in both locations in the early 18th century, but locally-made examples have not been confirmed.

In Bermuda, some families ordered silver tankards from New York. John Darrell, Chief Justice of Bermuda, ordered an example from John Hastier about 1740, and the Jones and Butterfield families of Bermuda owned pieces by Simeon Soumaine; the Soumaine Butterfield tankard is at the Tucker House museum in St. George. Boston silversmith Thomas Savage moved to Bermuda for a short while, but only about 1706, so this could pre-date his arrival (see Jeanne Sloane, "Competition and craft: Silversmithing in Bermuda", The Silver Society Journal 13 (Autumn 2001), p. 29).

A similar lion thumbpiece tops an early 18th century tankard with wrigglework borders that was engraved Oscar Marescaux Jamaica; the maker's mark was an unidentified IE monogram (see Christie's, London, The Drew Heinz Collection, June 4, 2019, lot 395; kindly flagged by Luke Delmas).