Wine Cup
John Hull
c. 1660
Medium
Silver
Dimensions
17.2 × 9.2 × 9.4 cm (6 3/4 × 3 5/8 × 3 11/16 in.)
Classification
drinking vessel
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
222996
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This wine cup is among the earliest and rarest examples of colonial American silver, made in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1660 by John Hull and Robert Sanderson. Born in England and raised in Boston, Hull was appointed mintmaster for the Colony in 1652, partnering then with Sanderson. The cup’s restrained style and lack of ornamentation express the Puritan values of early settlers. Commissioned by William Needham, later sexton of Old South Church in Boston, the vessel was used domesticall...