A SILVER TANKARD

Details
A SILVER TANKARD
MAKER'S MARK OF EPHRAIM BRASHER, NEW YORK, 1770-1780

Baluster form, on spreading circular foot, the front engraved with a coat-of-arms and crest within an elaborate foliate scroll, trelliswork, and rocaille cartouche, the scroll handle with an applied molded drop and molded shield scroll terminal, the hinged domed cover with an openwork scroll and shell thumbpiece and crenellated lip, marked--8 3/4in. high
(40 oz.)
Provenance
The arms are those of Sands, as borne by Comfort Sands, (1748-1834), merchant and Revolutionary patriot born at "Cowneck," later Sands' Point, Long Island. In 1769 Sands founded his own business at Peek Slip, New York, and soon built his fortune in the West Indian trade. He was involved in Revolutionary activities as early as 1765, when he burned ten bales of stamped paper from an English brig. Sands escaped from New York during the British occupation of 1776 but his house in New Rochelle was burned. Sands held a number of public offices and, with Alexander Hamilton, founded New York's first bank, the Bank of New York, in 1784. Sands was described as "tall, of clear florid complexion and prominent features; in character he was firm, open and unsuspecting, generous to friends, relatives and dependents, and liberal of his time and property in all matters pertaining to the public good" (as quoted in Dictionary of American Biography). In The New-York Packet and The American Advertiser of April 5, 1781, Sands printed a notice of the theft of this tankard from him at Fishkill, New York, and named one Spragg as a member of the "gang of villains" responsible. Spragg apparently was a Loyalist and took this tankard with him to New Brunswick, where it surfaced early in this century.
Literature
James Biddle, American Art from American Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963, fig. 1963, fig. 118, p. 57.
Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia E. Kane, eds., American Art: 1750-1800, Towards Independence, 1976, fig. 158, p. 201.
Exhibited
Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Art from American Collections, 1963.
Yale Universtiy Art Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, American Art: 1750-1800, Toward Independence, April-September, 1976