Last week we visited the Arabia Museum.  This trip I made three new dicoveries in the realm of tinware.  There was a cup with a wired edge shown below.  There was no attempt to completely wire the rim, and the area where the handle is attached is flattened.  This may have resulted from cutting the wire too short.  Was it a mistake?  One might assume that cup may have been made by an apprentice and was not intended for retail sale.  These items were being shipped to the frontier and needed to be of the highest quality to withstand the rough and tumble West.  Or perhaps it was made by a thrifty tinsmith who wanted to save on wire.

The flared pans here were not a uniform size such as one pint or one quart and did not have the same angle of flare either.

There was also a civilian cup with a reinforced handle which people often assume to be a military version.  The US military regulations of 1851 required the handle be attached with the wire wrapping the rim and riveting at the bottom.   This cup dates prior to 1856 and the owner scratched his name on the bottom of the cup in block letters and in script.