Pap Boat 1800 - 1830

Curator: This understated little object is a pap boat. Made of silver sometime between 1800 and 1830, it's part of the decorative arts collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: My first impression? It’s deceptively simple. The monochrome image belies the material, the subtle sheen of the silver suggests both preciousness and vulnerability, almost like a fragile eggshell. Curator: Its purpose wasn't exactly glamorous, I’m afraid. Pap boats were used to feed infants or invalids a soft food called "pap"—typically bread or grains boiled in milk or water. These were most popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. The elongated spout made it easier to spoon feed someone unable to feed themselves. Editor: The form is incredibly direct, bordering on crude. Yet, the use of silver elevates it beyond a mere utilitarian object, endowing it with symbolic weight. The boat shape perhaps a vessel for sustenance, for nurturing. A sacred task made mundane. Curator: It does tell an interesting story of social history. Think about the high infant mortality rates of the time. A silver pap boat perhaps speaks to the desperation and lengths that families of means went to care for their children. Editor: Silver often stands as a symbol of purity and well-being; its association with the moon speaks to cyclical processes. In this case, its used in something meant to introduce external food into one’s vessel—disrupting this natural cycle from the breast to outside, there is an uneasy tension in this object Curator: I never quite thought about it in those terms. From my perspective, luxury goods were always wrapped up in these social anxieties. These objects demonstrate how deeply status, fear, and love were entwined, revealing uncomfortable intersections. Editor: So even in the simplest vessel, there's a reservoir of human drama, revealing hidden anxieties around societal rituals Curator: Precisely. A reminder that objects, however modest, can tell complex tales of hope, fear, and the enduring human spirit.