As Donald Fennimore has pointed out, the Congregational church strove to reduce the number of liturgical forms as a means of distancing themselves from the ritualistic accoutrements employed by the Roman and Anglican churches. The large, wide bowl, or basin, was a secular vessel appropriated for christening. The plain form, graced only with a lively inscription, was at the opposite extreme from the lavish baptismal fonts often built into the fabric of the Roman churches. Effaced evidence of an unfinished S-scrolled decorative pattern at the rim and a compass design in the central dome of the vessel suggests that Coney had originally been commissioned to embellish the basin but stopped for unknown reasons early in his efforts.

This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.

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