Pewter tankard engraved with representation of William III. English, 1698.

Pewter tankard with a representation of William III and the crowned initials WR, flanked by a lion, unicorn, rose and thistle engraved on the body. S-shaped handle, hinged lid with thumb piece.

Alfred Yeates Bequest

This pewter tankard is engraved in wrigglework with a portrait of William III. The Museum acquired it as part of the Alfred Yeates Bequest of 1945.

The Museum's Register records two unusual stories about this tankard.

Firstly in an interview published in the Daily Mail on 19th March 1955, Captain Owen Cunningham claimed that he had made this tankard in 1929 at the age of 17. The Museum has further documentation to refute the claim including proof that the tankard existed in at least 1927 when Cunningham was 15. The object was tested by the government scientist and was found to be entirely consistent with a 17th-century date.

Secondly, in December 1973 Professor K.W. Goss of the Physiology Dept of the London Hospital Medical College, borrowed this tankard to illustrate a point in a lecture about the importance of saving premature babies. Referring to a story that Sir Isaac Newton as a baby was so small that his mother could sit him in a pewter tankard, Professor Goss made a perspex replica of the body of the tankard and photographed a premature baby sitting in it.

M.63-1945