Two-Handled Cup

Jeremiah Dummer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small two-handled cup was made for the First Church of Christ Congregational in Farmington, Connecticut by Jeremiah Dummer, the first native-born New England silversmith. One of seven silver drinking vessels originally owned by the Church, it is a particularly fine example, with lively S-scroll handles on a generous pear-shaped body, simply engraved with the initials F.C. With barely a roof over their heads, Colonists endowed their churches with communion silver that befit the simpler form of worship they embraced. This cup retains a beautiful patina, accentuating the hammer marks struck in concentric circles around its body.

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