Porringer

Married in 1706 and made a freeman of the city of New York by 1708, Bartholomew Schaats enjoyed a long career as a silversmith. He produced numerous tankards, spoons, and porringers and fashioned more ambitious forms such as candlesticks, a salver, a two-handled bowl, a caster, and a teapot. Schaats supplemented his trade by subletting the docks and slips of New York between 1740 and 1746 as well as stalls in the city marketplaces in 1747. He served as collector of the East Ward between 1737 and 1745.

Of his known porringers, one has an early tripartite handle, and another bears an intricate “flowered” form popular in eighteenth-century New York. This example, its handle pierced with circles, tablets, and hearts, echoes those made in New England in the early eighteenth century. It is identical to another porringer by Schaats that is engraved “T / E * E.” C. Louise Avery has pointed out that both Schaats and Peter Van Dyck (1684 – 1751) made porringers with this type of handle.

This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.