Unknown Maker, French

The silver mount is engraved "Gabriel Bernon" and "1685." Bernon, a Newport resident by 1697, was one of the founders of the Church of England in Rhode Island. When whole, the vase was at least twice its present height with a flaring mouth. Bernon's family valued his relics highly and kept even this fragment, enhanced in the later 19th century with a silver mount.

Vases of this type were one element of a three- or five-part set with each piece having similar decoration. Their purpose was purely decorative and they would have "garnished" the mantel or other prominent location in Bernon's house.

This is the base of vase that originally formed part of a larger garniture set (see no. 2). At some point after it was damaged (probably in the nineteenth century), it was fitted with a silver rim engraved with the name of the original owner, Gabriel Bernon, a Huguenot who moved to Rhode Island in 1697. As one of the founders of the Church of England in Rhode Island, Bernon was a religious celebrity, whose possessions were prized as relics by his descendants. A matching covered vase from the same set is in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society.