Two-Handled Covered Cup
Cornelius Kierstede
1698–1720
Medium
Silver
Dimensions
12.7 × 20.3 × 12.7 cm (5 3/8 × 8 5/8 × 5 3/4 in.)
Classification
drinking vessel
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
106538
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This luxurious vessel, by one of New York’s foremost early silversmiths, was used to serve syllabub, a sweetened or flavored wine, cider, beer, or ale into which milk was whipped. The cover helped preserve the frothy drink and also, using its three equidistant handles as legs, could be inverted into a stand for the cup. The vessel bears the mark CK, standing for Cornelius Kierstede, a third-generation New York silversmith of Dutch descent. Kierstede opened a shop around 1698 in New York, where h...