Tankard

Benjamin Burt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early American tankards, used for drinking beer or ale, survive in some quantity. Eighteenth-century Boston examples feature a tall tapered body, applied midband, and domed cover with finial. An inscription engraved on the handle of this tankard documents its presentation from the Salem sea captain and merchant Richard Derby to his son John on New Year’s Day 1763.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art