  About the Artwork
  
  
  In this wine cup, Boston silversmith Jeremiah Dummer created contrasts between intricate three-dimensional decoration and smooth, flat fields of gleaming silver. Fluted lobes project from the bottom of the cup, while an elaborate pattern on its raised foot resembles the coiled fibers of a rope. Dummer made this cup for the communion service of the Third Church in Boston, a congregation that survives as the Old South Church. That later name was engraved on the cup long after Dummer made it.

Dummer was a leading silversmith in New England in an era when that precious metal was used as hard currency and as a medium to fashion luxurious objects. He reserved this fluted wine cup form for church commissions, making about twelve closely related examples that survive today for churches in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
  
  
  Title
  Wine Cup
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1705 and 1708
  
  Artist
  Jeremiah Dummer
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1645-1718
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Silver
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 8 1/4 × 4 5/8 inches (21 × 11.7 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Silver
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Edward E. Rothman Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2017.39
  
  
  Copyright
  ----------
