Tankard

Pelletreau was especially successful in selling his work to a geographically dispersed population, ranging from Connecticut and New Jersey to the environs of New York, including his native Long Island. He was aided by his sons John and Elias Jr. and by a grandson, William Smith Pelletreau. Dean Failey has noted that Pelletreau’s account books recorded the sale of fifty-seven tankards, most of which had broad and plain bodies, a flat-topped lid, rigorous base molding, and cast scrolled thumbpieces, as found in both this example and the preceding Winthrop family vessel (cat. no. 104).

This tankard, engraved “C * F,” links three Long Island families distinguished by patriotic service during the American Revolution and for their patronage of this successful local silversmith. Pelletreau made silver for Charity Floyd, sister of William Floyd (1734 – 1821), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and wife of Yale-educated Ezra L’Hommedieu, who was a participant in the New York Provincial Congress, delegate to the Continental Congress, and a framer of the Constitution of 1777. Pelletreau also made two canns for William Floyd’s daughter Mary (1763 – 1805), the first wife of soldier and congressman Benjamin Tallmadge (1754 – 1835).

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.