Porringer

When Kathryn C. Buhler published her two-volume work on the Museum’s silver collection, she omitted this porringer, although it had been in the collection since 1932. Its added spout may have led to her decision to exclude an altered object. However, this modification suggests how changing tastes or needs have shaped the types of forms used over time.

The addition of a spout to a porringer allowed its owner to extend its use as a type of low saucepan for serving liquids. Porringers were popular in the colonies long after the taste for this form had faded in England, but it is unclear how these vessels were used in the nineteenth century. The large number of surviving porringers suggests that some must have remained in use, whereas others were retained out of respect for the ancestors who first owned them. The survival of this curious spouted porringer allows us to consider how some were adapted for continued use at the table.

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.