Tankard

This tankard was made for Severyn Bruyn who died in 1759 and bequeathed it to his grandson Severyn Bruyn the second. This Severyn was an officer with the donor's grandfather in the War of 1812. As the two became older and retired from active life, the donor recalls that they used to sit and drink from the tankard "copious spiced New England rum and compared notes upon the way in which they had licked the British . . . When the great temperance agitation of 1830 came along, they drank milk punch and a strainer and spout were added to the face of the tankard in order to strain the grated nutmeg and other solids in the making of the punch. I know that they all regarded the strainer and the spout as a profanation, but in those days, as in these, the women of the household ruled the roost and to please them the strainer and the spout were added."