Cann

Jacob Hurd

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The tulip-shaped, scroll-handled drinking vessels called canns were frequently supplied in pairs and were often engraved with the owner’s coat or arms. Here, the arms of Gardiner (or Gardner) are finely engraved on the body opposite the handle. This cann bears the mark of Jacob Hurd, one of Boston’s most prolific silversmiths, whose surviving oeuvre includes a wide range of domestic and church silver, as well as gold mourning rings and silver-hilted swords.

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