Porringer

Peter Van Dyck

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early New York porringer handles often display the lacy pierced patterning seen here, an elaborate symmetrical design that incorporates cross and heart motifs at the tip. Peter Van Dyck made several similar examples, but porringers with this handle style were also produced by other New York makers. Through his marriage in 1711 to Rachel Le Roux, Van Dyck was related to the Le Roux family of French Huguenot silversmiths, and he counted among his patrons some of colonial New York’s wealthiest and most prominent citizens, such as the Livingstons and Schuylers. Unfortunately the original owner of this porringer is unknown.

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