Porringer
ca.1800
Medium
Silver
Dimensions
Overall: 2 1/8 x 7 3/4 in. (5.4 x 19.7 cm); 6 oz. 15 dwt. (210.5 g) Body: Diam. 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm) Lip: Diam. 5 3/16 in. (13.2 cm)
Classification
Porringer
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Alphonso T. Clearwater, 1933
Accession Number
33.120.353
Art Historical Context
This elegant silver porringer, crafted around 1800 by American silversmith Saunders Pitman, reflects the refined domestic objects prized in early national households. With its shallow body, broad lip, and characteristic handle, the vessel measures just over two inches high and nearly eight inches across, weighing about six and three-quarters ounces. Such pieces combined utility with understated beauty, serving as both everyday tableware and subtle markers of prosperity. In the decades following the American Revolution, silver remained a valuable material that silversmiths shaped through techn...