Mid-eighteenth-century Boston tankards tended to be tall and tapered, with domed covers and horizontal midbands. By the end of the century, when the vogue for these drinking vessels had begun to wane, they grew even taller, with a more exaggerated dome to the cover. This one is especially large. The script monogram "S E B" engraved on its front stands for Samuel Ebenezer Bradley, or possibly Samuel and Elizabeth Bradley, who were married on September 2, 1784. It appears in Paul Revere's account book for the year 1795, where he lists a three-pint tankard under Bradley's name.

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