Description:
English creamware, press-molded fox-head stirrup cup or rhyton with long pointed ears and the rim bordered with a gadrooned band. Traditionally huntsmen mounted on horseback and about to depart for the hunt had a drink as a toast to success in the pursuit of their quarry. Stirrup cups are designed without a stem or foot so that the rider can grasp the vessel in a gloved hand while clutching the reins of a horse. The vessels represented the animals involved in the hunt such as dogs, foxes, hares and stags. The fox shape is one of the earliest forms of stirrup cup made in English pottery. Over time, more elaborate designs usually with a hunting theme were produced, which occasionally had inscriptions connected with the chase. Although silversmiths were producing stirrup cups as early as 1771, most cups were produced in several ceramic forms including creamware, pearlware, and black basalt. Anita Campbell shows a similar stirrup cup found during excavation of one of the archaeological sites in Place-Royale, Quebec City, which included the original foundations of several houses where some residents had large creamware dinner services, and tea and coffee wares. Generally fox mask cups were circulated among participants before the hunt. But "forty-eight cream colour fox heads, twenty-six brown fox heads" were part of a huge order supplied by Wedgwood for the open air, coming of age party of Sir Watkin Williams Wyn in 1770. There was a sharp distinction between the quality of different types of quarry. The hart, the hind, the hare, the boar, and the wolf were superior "beasts of venery" while the fox, marten, and the small roe deer were considered second rate prey. Until the mid 18th century the fox was dismissed as an inedible, verminous creature of low cunning, like a badger, worthy only to be stopped or trapped in its earth by terriers. The nobility gradually took up fox hunting as exercise. Leicestershire with its cleared arable fields transformed into grassland became the best hunting country in England. Foxhunds were bred for their speed, stamina, and scenting abilities. The combination of thoroughbred horses and improved hounds made the sport swift and exciting.
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