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Lot Essay
Philippa Glanville in Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England (London, 1990, p. 259), notes that the tankard was first introduced in the 1540s to the Royal court; it could be found in the circles of the upper gentry by the 1560s. It served as personal drinking vessel for both men and women. Inventories from the time confirm that tankards were listed singly or in twos; even the extensive 1574 royal inventory listed only four tankards. An inventory of Hardwick Hall taken in 1601 only records four out of a total of forty-two drinking vessels.
Tudor tankards of tapering body with horizontal ribs or bars are derived from wooden, barrel-shaped, 'water tankard' prototypes. Examples of such wooden tankards were discovered with the recovery of Henry VIII's flagship, The Mary Rose, lost in a storm in 1545, but raised in the early 1980s. The abundance of ornament employed in all-over patterns was another characteristic of English silver of the period, as was marine iconography, exemplified here by the mermaid thumbpiece (see ibid., pp. 259-66, and 'Tudor Drinking Vessels,' Burlington Magazine Supplement, September 1985, p. 22).
In his catalogue of the Zilkha collection, Schroder notes that mermaid thumbpieces had gained popularity some twenty years before the present tankard was made, and suggests that the rather rough finishing could be the result of an old mold (Schroder, 2012, p. 104). Schroder draws a parallel between the Zilkha tankard and a pair of 1602 tankards, mark of John Bottomley, in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. While both examples feature flat-chased strapwork bands that had become a fashionable form of decoration around 1600, the Zilkha tankard is further enhanced by the applied medallions flanking the engraved initials.
The inscription on the underside documents the tankard’s 1830 donation to the St. Andrew’s Church, Headington by the parish’s retiring rector, James Rogers. In an exploration of tankards, Wilfred Cripps notes of the Zilkha tankard 'A little later comes a good example of 1602 now used as a communion flagon at Heddington, Wilts' (Cripps, 1903, p. 357). The tankard remained in the church until it was sold on 23 July 1976 at Phillips, London for £21,000, a record price for a tankard at that time. Described in an article published in The Times the following day as 'the church’s only treasure,' the tankard was sold to raise funds to repair the church’s then 400 year old roof. The first reference to the church can be found in the Charter of Henry I in 1122, although it is believed that the site has been a place of worship for over 1700 years.
Tudor tankards of tapering body with horizontal ribs or bars are derived from wooden, barrel-shaped, 'water tankard' prototypes. Examples of such wooden tankards were discovered with the recovery of Henry VIII's flagship, The Mary Rose, lost in a storm in 1545, but raised in the early 1980s. The abundance of ornament employed in all-over patterns was another characteristic of English silver of the period, as was marine iconography, exemplified here by the mermaid thumbpiece (see ibid., pp. 259-66, and 'Tudor Drinking Vessels,' Burlington Magazine Supplement, September 1985, p. 22).
In his catalogue of the Zilkha collection, Schroder notes that mermaid thumbpieces had gained popularity some twenty years before the present tankard was made, and suggests that the rather rough finishing could be the result of an old mold (Schroder, 2012, p. 104). Schroder draws a parallel between the Zilkha tankard and a pair of 1602 tankards, mark of John Bottomley, in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. While both examples feature flat-chased strapwork bands that had become a fashionable form of decoration around 1600, the Zilkha tankard is further enhanced by the applied medallions flanking the engraved initials.
The inscription on the underside documents the tankard’s 1830 donation to the St. Andrew’s Church, Headington by the parish’s retiring rector, James Rogers. In an exploration of tankards, Wilfred Cripps notes of the Zilkha tankard 'A little later comes a good example of 1602 now used as a communion flagon at Heddington, Wilts' (Cripps, 1903, p. 357). The tankard remained in the church until it was sold on 23 July 1976 at Phillips, London for £21,000, a record price for a tankard at that time. Described in an article published in The Times the following day as 'the church’s only treasure,' the tankard was sold to raise funds to repair the church’s then 400 year old roof. The first reference to the church can be found in the Charter of Henry I in 1122, although it is believed that the site has been a place of worship for over 1700 years.