MARK OF DANIEL HENCHMAN, BOSTON, CIRCA 1765; ENGRAVING ATTRIBUTED TO NATHANIEL HURD

Details

A FINE AND LARGE SILVER TANKARD
MARK OF DANIEL HENCHMAN, BOSTON, CIRCA 1765; ENGRAVING ATTRIBUTED TO NATHANIEL HURD
Tapering cylindrical, the domed cover with a baluster finial and molded scroll thumbpiece, the S-scroll handle with applied molded drop and an oval terminal, the body with applied mid-band above a molded circular foot, the front engraved with a large stag's-head crest, marked HENCHMAN on base and DH on cover, base engraved 52 oz-7-12
10¼ in. (26.1 cm.) high; 52 oz. (1,619 gr.)

Provenance

Greene Family of Massachusetts
With Firestone & Parson
Christie's, New York, 17 June 1992, lot 68

The arms of Greene, as borne by Thomas Greene (1706-1763) of Boston, appear on a tankard by Paul Revere of 1762, now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery (see Buhler & Hood, American Silver, 1970, fig. 240).

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Lot Essay

Stylistic and documentary evidence support an attribution of the very fine engraving on this tankard to Nathaniel Hurd. A nearly identical stag's-head crest appears on the engraved bookplate of Thomas Dering signed by Hurd in 1749 (see Morrison H. Heckscher and Leslie G. Bowman, American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament, 1992, fig. 14, p. 41). The engraving on a silver monteith bowl made by Henchman and presented to Dartmouth College in 1771 bears the signature of Nathaniel Hurd and documents the collaboration of these two silversmiths. Both Henchman and Nathaniel Hurd apprenticed to Jacob Hurd, and Henchman married Nathaniel's sister Elizabeth in 1753.

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