Punch Bowl

Adrian Bancker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Punch, a heady concoction of spirits, water, citrus, sugar, and spices, was especially fashionable in England, where trade with the West Indies ensured ample supplies of rum, sugar, and spices. The beverage enjoyed considerable popularity in the American colonies as well. This punch bowl reflects a keen awareness of contemporary English silver, particularly in its engraved symmetrical cartouche of shells and foliate vines. As noted in the inscription, it was made for prominent New York merchant Christopher Bancker (1695–1763) as a gift from the heirs of John Roosevelt (1689–1750), to whom the Bancker family was related by marriage. Bancker was also the older brother of Adrian Bancker, the silversmith commissioned to make the bowl.

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