Description:
English white press-molded, salt-glazed stoneware wall pocket in a cornucopia shape with valenced rim over a relief-molded naked boy seated astrid fruiting vines with Liver birds perched on their outer tendrils around the top border, and a swirled, fluted body. A block mold for a similar wall pocket (without the boy and birds in the border), part of the Enoch Wood collection, is owned by the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, which Arnold R. Mountford dates circa 1745. Charles F. C. Luxmoore in his "English Saltglazed Earthenware" (pl. 36) describes an example as "decorated with liver and imp." It has been suggested that this model might be of Liverpool origin with the Liver birds and similarly-shaped cornucopiae known in Liverpool delft although a mold block for a similar pocket has not been found. Flowers were commonly used room decorations in the 17th and 18th centuries, and were displayed in pockets, flower bricks, vases, pots, and bowls. Wall pockets, wall-mounted flower containers, first appeared in China during the 17th century, and reached their peak of popularity in mid-18th century England, produced in delft, salt and lead-glazed earthenware, and porcelain. The three basic shapes are: faces, balusters, and cornucopia; sold in pairs, wall pockets were made in asymmetrical shapes with right and left-handed examples, as well as identical forms. Usually constructed of press-molded fronts joined to a flat, slab back, wall pockets invariably included a pair of holes to facilitate hanging. From the J. B. Morris collection, with the sticker #1083, and in crayon #1045.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+3135 |
