y articles for the table to
the colonist, just as it did in later days on our Western frontiers,
where trenchers of wood and plates of birch-bark were seen in every
log-cabin.

The word tankard was originally applied to a heavy and large vessel of
wood banded with metal, in which to carry water. Smaller wooden drinking
tankards were subsequently made and used throughout Europe, and were
occasionally brought here by the colonists. The plainly shaped wooden
tankard, made of staves and hoops and here shown, is from the collection
at Deerfield Memorial Hall. It was found in the house of Rev. Eli Moody.
These commonplace tankards of staves were not so rare as the beautiful
carved and hooped tankard which is here pictured, and which is in the
collection of Mrs. Samuel Bowne Duryea, of Brooklyn. I have seen a few
other quaintly carved ones, black with age, in American families of
Huguenot descent; these were apparently Swiss carvings.

The chargers, or large round platters found on every dining-table, were
of pewter. Some were so big and heavy that they weighed five or six
pounds apiece. Pewter is a metal never seen for modern table
furnishing, or domestic use in any form to-day; but in colonial times
what was called a garnish of pewter, that is, a full set of pewter
platters, plates, and dishes, was the pride of every good housekeeper,
and also a favorite wedding gift. It was kept as bright and shining as
silver. One of the duties of children was to gather a kind of horse-tail
rush which grew in the marshes, and because it was used to scour pewter,
was called scouring-rush.

Pewter bottles of various sizes were sent to the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, in 1629. Governor Endicott had one, but they were certainly far
from common. Dram cups, wine mugs, and funnels of pewter were also
occasionally seen, but scarcely formed part of ordinary table
furnishings. Metheglin cans and drinking-mugs of pewter were found on
nearly every table. Pewter was used until this century in the wealthiest
homes, both in the North and South, and was preferred by many who owned
rich china. Among the pewter-lovers was the Revolutionary patriot, John
Hancock, who hated the clatter of the porcelain plates.

Porringers of pewter, and occasionally of silver, were much used at the
table, chiefly for children to eat from. These were a pretty little
shallow circular dish with a flat-pierced handle. Some had a "fish-tail"
handle; these are said to be Dutch. Th