AMERICAN SILVER TANKARD.

Inscribed 1862

Campana-shaped bowl with floral and foliate motifs encircling central plaque bearing engraved inscription in English and Hebrew: “Presented to R. Eliezer Philips by Dr. I. Rindskopf, 5622.” Oak-branch handle, the whole set on a circular base. Marked: Stebbins & Co. Height: 4.5 inches.

Eliezer Philips was author of Marpeh Aruchah (1881) and U’Marpeh BiKnafehah (1889), two rabbinic works issued in New York (see Goldman, Hebrew Printing nos. 690 and 692). The Jesselson-Kaplan American Genizah Collection at the University of Pennsylvania contains a letter from 1865 in which Eliezer Philips inquires whether Rev. Isaac Leeser might prove to be influential in having Philips’s son Myer released from service in the US Navy after having suffered the ill effects of a torpedo explosion on board the USS Randolph. New York silversmith Stebbins & Co. was active between 1845-56. The tankard was inscribed a few years later when presented to the rabbi in 1862.