Description:
English pearlware hot-water kettle with the inscription "T & M. Sayer / St. SIDWELL'S / EXETER" on one side and decorated in "Prattware" colors of blue, red, green, and brown after the potter, William Pratt, who developed the palette at his factory in Lane Delph, Staffordshire. These are the typical range of colors available for underglaze painted decoration, a palette limited to colors derived from metallic oxides that could withstand the heat of the glaze firing. Research done in 1998 by Brian Adams, Curator of the Bovey Tracey Pottery Museum, indicates that the inscription probably commemorates the marriage of Thomas Sayer and Mary Prouse at St. Sidwell's in Exeter, Devon, on August 3, 1809. The Prouses were connected to the Indio Pottery at Bovey Tracey, Devonshire. The general style of the pot, particularly the lettering, is the same as three others with place name inscriptions local to the Bovey Tracey potteries - Moreton, Chagford, and Lezant. The potteries at Bovey Tracey made a variety of ceramic wares including tin-glazed earthenware, white salt-glazed stoneware, redware, creamware, and pearlware. Large-sized pots, like this example which are similar in size and shape to contemporary silver teakettles. Howewever, Brian Adams wrote that they "call this shape a kettle -whether for punch or water we don't know." Although there is some evidence that punch was drunk from vessels like these, these large pots more likely contained hot water for refreshing tea leaves in the teapot. Contemporary hot punch included a blend of spirits and milk or water, flavored with oranges, lemons, sugar and spices. The attached, tri-lobed handle is outlined in brown and decorated with linear floral sprays, and blue dots and stylized foliage; the round, point-top knob is topped with blue petals, over a slightly domed lid with red, blue, and green floral sprays, and edged with one scalloped and two plain brown bands. The straight-sided pot rim is edged in two brown bands over two scalloped and plain brown bands; over a baluster-shaped body decorated with the inscription, a trelliswork pattern, and floral and foliate sprays; over a flat base. The attached, straight spout has blue dots and stylized petals around the spout opening, and linear floral spray along the lower side. There is a similar kettle in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.174 |
