Porringer

The handsome geometric handle of this porringer is seemingly identical to at least three other known examples by Edward Webb, attesting to the popularity of this design in Boston at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The vessel is also one of several works in the Museum’s collection that were owned by Loyalist and silversmith-turned-merchant Rufus Greene. In addition to a pepper box, or caster, made by Greene and owned by the craftsman and his wife, Katherine Stanbridge, the couple also owned a tankard by Boston silversmith David Jesse.

Both Webb and Jesse were dead before Greene came of age, and their silver was probably made when he was a child. How the vessels came into his possession is unclear.

In the years between 1728, the year in which Greene began to practice independently as a silversmith, and 1749, when he is first listed in the public records as a merchant, the former craftsman gradually turned to more profitable mercantile pursuits that included land speculation and the sale of rum and sugar. Success in these enterprises brought the means to furnish Greene’s comfortable household with such items as heraldic embroideries, leather chairs, and other upholstered goods; portraits of the couple were painted by John Singleton Copley about 1758 – 61. It is possible that the Webb porringer, Jesse tankard, and Greene pepper box were the same as those listed in the former silversmith’s probate inventory.

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.