NEW ENGLAND PORRINGER—GARVAN 549 
of Colonial silversmiths to create a meaningful symbolism, a sym- 
bolism which reflects the New England divergence from English 
views on church and state followed by the gradual substitution of 
Royal authority and merchant goals in the place formerly held by 
the theocratic government and ideals of the Massachusetts Bay 
Company. 
French colonial work of the period seems to have combined heart 
and scallop-shell motifs in various ways. (PI. 3, fig. 2.) The heart 
as a symbol of sanctioned love and divine fervor and the scallop as 
the vehicle of Venus which carried strong and possibly direct sexual 
connotations were combined sometimes with the vine of the Lord’s 
vineyard and sometimes with an escutcheon suitably initialed. Despite 
the use of the escutcheon, a typical British and Puritan device, the 
early porringer remained in part an uncovered écuelle, French in 
feeling. (PI. 4, figs. 1 and 2.) 
This handsome design seems to have persisted only in the brief 
career of Peter Oliver (1682-1712) (pl. 5, fig. 1). More typical of 
New England were the so-called geometric handles which might be 
more appropriately termed Puritan design. Diverging sharply from 
both London and French practice, these handles closely paralleled 
official Puritan views on love and marriage and symbolized at once 
religious concern and married love. (PI. 5, fig. 2.) 
“There is, therefore, no comparison so much used in the Scriptures 
to represent the mutual love between Christ and His Church as that 
which is between a Man and his Wife.” Or again from the New 
England Primer of 1727: 
H My Book and Heart 
Shall never part. 
These piercings have at their base QQ, a small opening cut to 
imitate the tablets of the Decalogue required by law to hang in 
English churches as the primary symbol of the English Reformation 
and its attack on Catholic iconography.”2 The tablets especially 
suited the Puritan in New England since they combined a reference 
to the Old Testament with a reminder of the virtue of religious learn- 
ing and at the same time gave no undue concessions to the role of the 
crown in the determination of religious practice.* They were so used 
on the title page of the popular and influential “New English Tutor.” 
The other piercings are less clear. The quatrefoil occurs commonly 
in both a symmetrical and asymmetrical shape and in many different 
positions. Trefoils are less common decorative piercings. Whether 
either had a commonly understood symbolism, it is difficult to say. 
21 Samuel Willard, A compleat body of divinity, p. 679. Boston. 1726. 
22G. W. O. Addleshaw and Frederick Etchells, The architectural setting of Anglican 
worship, p. 85. London. No date. The Royal Order of 1561 made official a recent custom. 
23 This last made the use of Royal Arms and symbols especially objectionable to Puritans. 
Sewall, Diary, vol. 1, p. 158; vol. 8, p. 159. 
