Wine Cup

c. 1660

John Hull
American, born England, 1627–1683
Robert Sanderson
American, born England, c. 1608–1693
Boston

This wine cup is among the earliest and rarest examples of colonial American silver, made in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1660 by John Hull and Robert Sanderson. Born in England and raised in Boston, Hull was appointed mintmaster for the Colony in 1652, partnering then with Sanderson. The cup’s restrained style and lack of ornamentation express the Puritan values of early settlers. Commissioned by William Needham, later sexton of Old South Church in Boston, the vessel was used domestically—a decidedly uncommon possession even for an established family of the time. An inscription was added to the cup when Needham donated it to Braintree Church in 1688.

Status: On View, Gallery 165
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: John Hull
Title: Wine Cup
Place: Boston (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1660
Medium: Silver
Inscriptions: Engraved on body: The Gift of William Needham to Brantry Church, 1688 Scratched on bottom: 10-17 Marked at rim: IH and RS
Dimensions: 17.2 × 9.2 × 9.4 cm (6 3/4 × 3 5/8 × 3 11/16 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society; Mary Swissler Oldberg Memorial Fund; purchased with funds provided by Samuel Mencoff and Jamee J. and Marshall Field; Mary Swissler Oldberg Fund; purchased with funds provided by Marilynn Thoma, Mrs. Herbert A. Vance, Erica C. Meyer, the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Illinois, and Jan and Tom Pavlovic
Reference Number: 2014.995
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/222996/manifest.json

W.S. Pattee, “History of Old Braintree and Quincy” (1878) p. 244.
E. Alfred Jones, “The Old Silver of American Churches” (Letchworth, England: Arden Press, 1913) p. 395.
Hermann F. Clarke, “John Hull, A Builder of the Bay Colony” (Portland, Maine: Southworth–Anthoesen Press, 1940) no. 21.
Patricia E. Kane et al., Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 571, 885.
Annual report (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014–15) online only.
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 1 (ill.).
Elizabeth McGoey, ed., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2018), https://publications.artic.edu/americansilver/reader/collection/section/6, cat. 1 (ill.).

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, July–December 1911, cat. 592, pl. 19 (ill.).
Possibly Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1930, no cat.

William Needham (c. 1614–1690), c. 1660; First Congregational Society Church, Quincy (formerly Braintree), MA, 1688 -2001; private collection, 2001; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2014.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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