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"I have basins, ewers, of tin, pewter and glass. Great vessels of copper, fine latten and brass: Both pots, pans and kettles, such as never was. I have platters, dishes, saucers and candle-sticks, Chafers, lavers, towels and fine tricks: Posnets, frying-pans, and fine puddingpricks ... Fine pans for milk, and trim tubs for sowse.

In the inventory of the estate of Robert Daniel, of Cambridge, in 1655, we learn that "a Little Porsenett" of his was worth five shillings. In 1693 Governor Caleb Carr, of Providence, bequeathed to his wife a "silver possnet & the cover belonging to it." By these records we see that posnets were of various metals, and sometimes had covers.

I have also been told that these little porringers were not posnets, but simply the samples of work made by apprentices in the pewterer's trade to show their skill and proficiency. Tin vessels were exceedingly rare in the seventeenth century, either for table furnishings or for cooking utensils, and far from common in the succeeding one.

I have heard the tiny little shallow pewter porringers, about two or three inches in diameter, with pierced handles, which are still found in New England, called posnets. They were in olden times used to heat medicine and to serve pap to infants.