Beaker

Moody Russell

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sum of eight pounds bequeathed by Shearjashub Bourn[e] to the church in Sandwich, Massachusetts, likely was used to purchase these two beakers. Bourne was a prominent and affluent citizen whose wealth derived from a lucrative trade he carried on with Native Americans. At his death, Bourne's estate was appraised at £943.1s.4d. Although a domestic form, beakers often were used as communion cups. These beakers appear to have served as models for four other beakers made for the church in the nineteenth century by Lewis Cary.

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