COLONIAL AMERICAN SILVER TANKARD Probably New York, Early 18th Century Molded flat cover with serrated front rim. Double-scroll thumbpiece and hinged drop. S-scroll handle with elaborate cartouche-form terminal. Tapering cylindrical body on a molded foot. Illegible and significantly rubbed maker's mark on handle. Body monogrammed "HC". Underside later inscribed "Old Dutch Tankard, said to have been in Cruger family over 200 years, into which Nicholas Cruger was placed on his birth in 1743, and used as a Communion Cup in Church at Saratoga in 1820. Given by Gerald Walton to his Cousin M.O. Rhinelander. Jan. 12th '96. Exhibited by the Colonial Dames in their Ecclesiastical Exhibition of silver at the Metropolitan Museum Season of 1912." Height 7.25". Approx. 33.7 troy oz. Nicholas Cruger (1743-1800) was a prosperous New York City merchant from a prominent political family. Around 1767 he moved to St. Croix, where he employed and mentored the young Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton's papers contain extensive extant correspondence between the two. Cruger generously supported the colonial cause during the Revolutionary War. The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited early New York, New Jersey and Southern church silver from November 6 to December 31, 1911. This tankard, lent by Mrs. William Rhinelander, is number 111 in the catalog. Number 141 in the same catalog is an English urn with an inscription pertaining to Nicholas Cruger's brother, Henry, lent by Mrs. T.J. Oakley Rhinelander. From the Estate of Minor Myers, Jr. of Mystic, Connecticut.