Description:
Punch pots were an invention of the mid-18th century, which followed exactly the form of contemporary Staffordshire teapots. Unlike punch bowls, included in pictures of riotous parties and their attendant paraphernalia, no contemporary illustrations exist of punch pots in use.The main ingredients of punch are spirits, sugar, nutmeg, spices and water. It can be assumed that punch pots were invented as a more refined means of dealing with this hot alcoholic beverage. The invention of the punch pot was surely closely linked with the introduction of red stoneware teapots in Staffordshire about 1750.These teapots, which were favoured by the Chinese for their ability to withstand the flame of a spirit-lamp, were ideal for making punch and keeping it hot. The same characteristics were shared with Staffordshire white salt-glazed stoneware, which in turn could be changed from a utilitarian object to a luxury product by the addition of elaborate enamel decoration. English salt-glazed stoneware punch pot or punch kettle or hot-water kettle with a inset domed cover with an acorn knop (may be a replacement), decorated in red, blue, pink, purple and green with chinoiserie floral sprays on the cover; scalloped borders with half-flowers around the lid rim and upper pot body; and on two sides with a three-sided, red and blue trellis running fence, and large pink and purple peonies surrounded by pink flowers and green leaves. Designs incorporating a fenced garden were freely adapted from Chinese porcelain patterns and are commonly found on Staffordshire salt-glazed stoneware. Although Staffordshire white stoneware had been perfected by about 1720, its possibilities for mass-production were not fully exploited until the 1740s. Then the techniques of press-moulding, slip-casting and enamelling were developed, and the drabness of the greyish stoneware surface was successfully relieved by the addition of all-over decoration. Colorfully painted stoneware using enameled decoration was being produced in Staffordshire by the mid 1750. Since these pieces required a second firing to fuse the enamels onto the glazed surface, these wares were more expensive than white stoneware.
Subjects:
Pottery; Enamel and enameling; glaze (coating by location); polychrome; Stoneware Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+67.303 |
