The New England Porringer: 
An Index of Custom 
By AnTHoNY N. B. GaRvAN 
Head Curator of Civil History 
Smithsonian Institution 
[With 8 plates] 
Oxsecrs are but imperfect records of action. However valid their 
authenticity, their design and pattern are seldom so critical as to have 
determined the exact course of the events with which they are related. 
Thus despite the markings which a firearm may leave upon a deadly 
ball, many other weapons of like or similar design can inflict an equally 
serious wound. The angle of the shot, the distance that separated 
victim and weapon, and all other details must be ascertained from the 
words of witnesses or the careful analysis of circumstantial evidence. 
The Deringer (pl. 1, fig. 1), however incontrovertibly linked to the 
bullet by the indisputable marks of its barrel, gives no clue as to 
motive for its use, the provocation, or a host of other pertinent ques- 
tions. All these must be answered apart from the weapon. Certainly 
very few artifacts can describe a particular action. Most, like an 
assassin’s firearm, become mere curiosities whose significance is buried 
in a plethora of sentiment. All the rich detail and human significance 
of the original event become obscured by what is at best incidental. 
In 1824 the Marquis de Lafayette revisited the United States. His 
landing was recorded in the press, by correspondents, diarists, and 
artists. In England, the Clews pottery in Cobridge, Staffordshire, was 
quick to take advantage of popular interest and manufactured, among 
other pieces, a handsome platter with a view of the arrival of the 
Marquis at Castle Garden (pl. 1, fig. 2). Produced in blue-and-white 
glaze with the view adapted to the curvature of the piece, it describes 
little of the event. The flags, the ships, the harbor, the buildings, have 
all become patently distorted by the many persons who have adapted 
the original view to the requirements of the platter. Moreover, the 
piece tells little but the obvious facts about English ceramic manufac- 
tures of the period which any other vessel might do equally well.t 
1Platter by James & Ralph Clews of Cobridge. Ellouise Baker Larsen, American his- 
torical views on Staffordshire china, p. 57. New York. 1950. 
543 
