# Cann
> Paul de Lamerie - 1727
> Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/paul-de-lamerie/paul-de-lamerie-cann-cleveland/
> Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-21
## Tombstone
- **Artist:** Paul de Lamerie
- **Date:** 1727
- **Medium:** Silver, parcel-gilt (gilded interior)
- **Dimensions:** Overall 32.3 x 14.6 cm (12 11/16 x 5 3/4 in.), as given by the Cleveland Museum of Art; the museum's public data does not label which figure is height and which is width
- **Object type:** Silver
- **Period:** England, first quarter of the eighteenth century (reign of George I)
- **Current location:** Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
- **Attribution:** accepted
## Summary
A silver drinking cann made in London in 1727, bearing the sponsor's mark of Paul de Lamerie from his first registration at Goldsmiths' Hall and dating, on the strength of that mark chronology, to the Britannia-standard period of his shop before his 1732 move to sterling silver and the rococo work that later made his name. Cleveland's own catalogue records only a donor, George H. Bowman Jr. of Salem, Ohio, who gave the cann to the museum in 1986, and a single in-house exhibition the following year.The front is engraved with a crest, a griffin's head erased under mantling, that the museum itself says was too widely used to identify a first owner. This is the earliest of four Lamerie pieces now recorded in this archive and the only one from his plainer, pre-rococo first-mark period; the other three, a soup tureen, a tea caddy, and a tray, were all made a decade or more later under his second and third marks. Its own documented history beyond that single gift and exhibition is thin, and this record states that plainly rather than filling the gap.
## Provenance
Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it.
- **1727** Workshop of Paul de Lamerie, London (sponsor's mark) `[documented]` (origin)
Bears the sponsor's mark of Paul de Lamerie, entered under his first registration at Goldsmiths' Hall and used on Britannia standard silver. The mark records responsibility for submitting the piece for assay, not necessarily the hand that made it.
- **1727-unknown** Unidentified first owner, bearing a griffin's-head-erased crest `[unknown]` (gap)
Engraved on the front with a crest of a griffin's head erased and mantling in the contemporary style. The Cleveland Museum of Art states this crest was widely used by more than one family and that the first owner cannot be identified from it. No armorial match has been published in the sources consulted for this record.
- **unknown-1986** George H. Bowman, Jr., Salem, Ohio `[documented]` (ownership (endpoint only documented))
The museum's own catalogue names George H. Bowman, Jr. of Salem, Ohio as the immediate prior owner and donor. No record of an intervening owner between 1727 and his ownership, nor of when or how he acquired the cann, has been found. The fact of his ownership is documented by the museum; the date and manner of his own acquisition are not.
- **1986-present** Cleveland Museum of Art `[documented]` (gift)
Given to the museum by George H. Bowman, Jr. in 1986 and accessioned as 1986.206. Shown in the museum's in-house 'Year in Review for 1986' exhibition, 4 February to 15 March 1987. No other exhibition or publication history is recorded in the museum's public data.
## Open questions
- Who was the cann's first owner? The engraved griffin's-head-erased crest was carried by more than one family, and the Cleveland Museum of Art's own catalogue states the first owner cannot be identified from it.
- Where was the cann, and in whose hands, between its making in 1727 and its documented ownership by George H. Bowman, Jr. of Salem, Ohio in the twentieth century? No intervening owner is published in any source consulted.
- When and how did George H. Bowman, Jr. acquire the cann? No dealer, auction, or family-history record has been found.
- Which specific assay marks does the piece carry: the Britannia figure and lion's-head-erased town mark of Britannia standard, or a later sterling lion passant? The museum's public data records the sponsor's mark and date but not a transcription of the standard marks themselves, so the Britannia-standard dating in this record follows Lamerie's general mark chronology rather than a direct reading of this object's own hallmarks.
- Has this cann been published in any Lamerie catalogue raisonne or exhibition catalogue, such as Phillips's 1935 monograph, the Goldsmiths' Company's 1990 'At the Sign of the Golden Ball' exhibition catalogue, or Alcorn and Murdoch's catalogue of the Cahn Collection? None of the sources consulted for this record cite it.
- What does the engraved decoration on the front actually show? The museum's structured catalogue field describes only a single crest and mantling; a separate description, which reads as an automatically generated image caption rather than curatorial prose, describes a fuller scene with an oval, a standing figure, winged children, and a mask. Whether these describe the same engraving or two different elements of it is unresolved without direct examination of the object.
## Sources
- [1] Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Cann,' collection catalogue entry, accession 1986.206.
- [2] Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access API, structured artwork record for accession 1986.206 (artwork id 153239): tombstone, provenance, inscriptions, exhibition and credit-line fields.
- [3] Wikimedia Commons, 'File:Paul Jacques de Lamerie (British, 1688-1751) - Cann - 1986.206 - Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg,' file description page and extmetadata (license, credit, digitization date).
- [4] Victoria and Albert Museum Collections, 'Mug,' Paul de Lamerie, London, hallmarked 1720-21, museum no. LOAN:GILBERT.985-2008 (Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection).
- [5] Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Cann,' collection catalogue entry, accession 2012.132 (English creamware, c. 1775, Bequest of Dr. Paul J. Vignos Jr.).
- [6] M.S. Rau, 'Paul de Lamerie: Setting the Standard,' Canvases, Carats and Curiosities blog. Trade source; flagged for replacement with Grimwade's 'London Goldsmiths 1697-1837' or Phillips's 1935 monograph on Lamerie.
- [7] Wikipedia, 'Paul de Lamerie.' Tertiary source, flagged for replacement with Grimwade's register-based catalogue and Phillips's 1935 'Paul de Lamerie: Citizen and Goldsmith of London.'
- [8] vintagewatchstraps.com, 'Blog: The Fallacy of the "Maker's Mark,"' on the sponsor's-mark convention in eighteenth-century English gold and silver marking.
- [9] Wikimedia Commons, 'File:Dish for Baron George Anson of Soberton, by Paul de Lamerie, London, 1726-1727, ornament added later, silver - Fowler Museum - University of California, Los Angeles - DSC02498.jpg,' file description page.
- [10] Wikimedia Commons, 'File:Waiter 1732 LA.jpg,' file description page (a Britannia-gauge waiter of 1732 marking Lamerie's transition to his second mark and the sterling standard). Image not used in this record: licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, not public domain or CC0.
---
Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.