Description:
Set of four English delft, bowl-shaped ointment pots, each inscribed in blue "Waller & Son / Guilford." R.J. Houghton and M. R. Priestley in their "Historical Guide to Delftware and Victorian Ointment Pots" note that Jesse Waller (1752-1836) founded his pharmacy in Guildford in 1774, where he claimed it was the first in town and the first building to have plate glass windows. Jesse married a Quaker, Mary Robinson, in either 1785 or 1786 and became a Quaker himself in 1792; they had five children. Their eldest son, Thomas (1789-1825), was apprenticed as a pharmacist to Corbon and Co. of Westminster in 1804, and would typically have finished this apprenticeship at age 21, circa 1810-1811. "Waller and Son" is thought to be Jesse and Thomas, working together until Thomas' death in 1825. After Jesse Waller's death in July 1836, the business was continued by his nephew, Edward Waller Martin, who traded as Waller Martin which became a well known local firm. Ointment pots, which varied in size and shape, dispensed sticky or semi-liquid preparations sold by apothecaries, grocers, perfumers, etc., who often had their names and sometimes addresses inscribed on them, such as these examples, when they ordered them in quantity from delftware factories. These pots are normally bowl-shaped with an everted rim, which could be covered with parchment secured with a string tied around the indentation below the rim. Around 1800, these delft pots were replaced with glass containers, cardboard-lined boxes, and chip boxes made of handcut wood shavings.
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