Description:
English slipware, chamber pot with a thrown cylindrical body with a curving lip/rim, attached strap handle on the side, and tapered base. The pot, which has a history of ownership in the Spenser-Bishop family of Guilford, Connecticut, is very similar to fragments of a chamber pot (HD ATW/PP76.9) excavated at the Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775) house site in Deerfield Massachusetts, circa 1750-1760. According to Lewis Scranton, a Killingworth, Conn, dealer and previous owner of the chamberpot, the pot was acquired from Charlotte Frey who was the long time companion of Mrs. Frederick Spencer, nee Bishop, of Guilford, Conn. Mrs. Spencer, who died around 96 or 97, lived in a very large Victorian house on Broad Street, facing the Guilford Green. The property is now owned by the First Congregational Church, which is next door. Charlotte used to wave the chamber pot through an open window to neighbors as they walked by on the sidewalk. She lived to be 93 and was known to be a character. Scranton sold the chamberpot to James Bechtel, of Old Lyme, CT, who sold it to Garry Atkins, a dealer in London, England. The pot is covered with an underglaze layer (engobe) of white slip; then decorated with dark brown slip on the rim in dots and on the side in round, lighter brown splotches; and coated with an uneven layer of clear lead glaze.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1998.6.1 |
