The base with flattened spreading edge below moulded and threaded wires, the tapering body applied a little way up with a similarly moulded girdle. The front engraved with bold plumes and leaves around contemporary armorials and the lid with similar engraving around a crest. The lid also with a cast lion couchant thumbpiece and the edges moulded with a threaded border. The "S" scroll handle, with plain rat-tail, descending to a wavy cut escutcheon at the bottom.
The arms are those of Smith thence to:
Humphrey Wood, FSA, (1838-1904) Solicitor and Collector from Chatham
The Executors of Humphrey Wood deceased sold at
Christies, 19th July, 1904, lot 57 (£147 to Crichton)
Crichton Bros sold to Colonel William Fearon Tipping of Brasted Place, Kent.
Colonel Tipping deceased, Christies, 15th May, 1911, Lot 38. (£232 to Mallet)
Property of a Gentleman, Christies, June 13th, lot 257, front cover illustration. (sold for £20,570 inc. premium and VAT)
Exhibited
Victoria and Albert Museum, at some point after 1904 and before 1911, lent by Colonel Tipping.
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The loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum is indicative of the rarity amd quality of this tankard. It holds 3 pints (1.7 litres) and is of very good weight. As was customary it is fully marked to the right of the handle and on the lid with a further maker's mark to the handle. The base is engraved with a scratchweight "38=15" indicating that the piece has only lost about half an ounce after engraving and over 350 years of use and cleaning. The lion thumbpiece may be connected, in this case, to the lion in the armorials although a number of similar thumbpieces are known at this period. A very similar tankard of the same date by Thomas Jenkins was also puchased by Mallet (see provenance) and is illustrated in an old scrapbook entitled "Mallet, The Octagon, Milson Street, Bath", now the property of Alastair Dickenson Ltd.
The arms are recorded by H.Sydney Grazebrook of the Inner Temple in "The Heraldry of Smith", published in 1870, plate XIII. He suggests that the arms may be that of Smith of Crabbett of Smith of Shirford in Warwickshire.
There is no shortage of plain tankards from the reign of Charles II onwards but there are only a few that have the quality of the Innes example. There have been a few examples where a later cast animal thumbpiece has be added to "improve its value". This fine tankard has a great provenance going back over 120 years.