Tankard

Benjamin Wynkoop

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The smooth, flat covers of early New York tankards were ideal venues for decorative engraving. Here, period ornament surrounds an interlaced monogram of the script initials “JD” for the original owner, Jonas Douw (ca. 1655-1736). The tankard’s body is engraved with a cartouche of leafy mantling surrounding the coat of arms and crest used by the Douw family. The tankard’s provenance is remarkably complete, and its successive owners include some of Albany’s best-known colonial families. Jonas’s son Petrus Douw (1692-1775) married Anna van Rensselaer (1696-1756) in October 1717, thereby uniting the Douws with one of Albany’s most prosperous families. The initials of Petrus and Anna are engraved on the handle of the tankard.

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