Porringer

Benjamin Burt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beginning around 1725, the so-called keyhole pattern became the most popular design for porringer handles. Its name derives from the keyhole- or teardrop-shaped piercing at the tip of the handle. This particular porringer was made by the prolific Boston silversmith Benjamin Burt as part of a large order of silver placed by Providence, Rhode Island merchant Moses Brown (1738–1836) prior to his 1764 marriage to his cousin Anna Brown (1744–1773). Anna’s wedding silver was secured through an inheritance she received from her father—and Moses’s uncle—Obadiah Brown (1712–1762). Surviving correspondence documents the order for this silver from Burt, as well as Burt’s subcontracting of the engraving to fellow Boston silversmith and engraver Nathaniel Hurd (1729/30–1777). The engraving on the handle of the Brown family crest and the inscription OB to AB commemorates the generous bequest of Obadiah Brown to his daughter, Anna Brown.

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