Lot Essay
The same engraved scene of a sportsman and dog confronting a deer with a deer's-head crest appears on another baluster tankard, by Jacob Gerittse Lansing of Albany, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A third piece of silver with the same engraving is a cann by Lansing in a private collection. Both Lansing pieces are illustrated in Norman S. Rice, Albany Silver, 1964, figs. 39 and 43, pp. 30-31. The scene is probably an early version of the arms of Van Rensselaer, which translates "deer's lair."
This tankard is one of a pair made by Samuel Tingley for the Van Rensselaer family. The mate to the present example is identical in every detail except that it appears to have had the scenic armorials replaced with the script monogram of Philip S. Van Rensselaer and the deer's-head crest replaced by the firebasket crest of Van Rensselaer, also used on silver in the 18th century. The matching Tingley tankard and a detail of its identical rococo cartouche are illustrated in Rice, op.cit., p.62.
This tankard is one of a pair made by Samuel Tingley for the Van Rensselaer family. The mate to the present example is identical in every detail except that it appears to have had the scenic armorials replaced with the script monogram of Philip S. Van Rensselaer and the deer's-head crest replaced by the firebasket crest of Van Rensselaer, also used on silver in the 18th century. The matching Tingley tankard and a detail of its identical rococo cartouche are illustrated in Rice, op.cit., p.62.