Description:
Spout master mold or spout block mold for the production of plaster of Paris negative spout molds, which has a scrolled shape with octagonal cut sides, and a paper collection label for "Elizabeth Chellis Wedgwood Collection." These 'blocks' or 'master-positives' (they have the shape and ornamental motifs in relief in positive) are made of very thick, almost solid salt-glazed stoneware and would have lasted many years. Despite being made from such a durable ceramic body, many of these block molds do not survive today, because they got thrown out as useless or old-fashioned ceramic tools. Today they are rare and therefore highly valued by ceramics collectors and curators. In this case - a plaster mold was taken of the spout and cut into two pieces. According to Gabriel Jars in 1765 - he describes the process of making spoits::" As to spouts, these are formed a little differently. There are moulds similar to those mentioned above, thoroughly dried and fitted into each other. At one of the ends which communicates with the hollow interior there is a hole through which one pours a very thin slip, in a way that there remains a hollow inside the formed piece which is the resulting teapot spout. What favours the formation of the hollow is the through dryness of the plaster which by its porousness takes up the water as it touches the walls. The mould is placed in front of the fire a short while, as before, to remove the complete piece which is fixed to the teapot as the handle." Once the plaster molds had become waterlogged or lost their crispness and definition - new plaster molds would be made from the block molds. Hugh Tait noted that the quality of the cutting of the blocks, especially the crispness of detail, determined the final results. The relief pattern on the end product is at least twice removed from the original creation, and at each of the intervening stages (the casting of the two-piece mold and drying out of the liquid clay), there is inevitably a certain loss of sharpness. Both Charles Luxmore and Hugh Tait illustrated a similar block mold for a coffee-pot spout (5 1/2" long) in the collection of the British Museum, which has the incised initials "R W 1748" on the base. Tait wrote that "RW" is probably Ralph Wood, Sr. (1715-1772) of Burslem, Staffordshire. These molds were very valuable - a spout mold listed in the 1761 inventory of John Baddeley's factory stock and utensils was valued at 2 guineas (or 2 pounds and 2 shillings. There is another similar incised RW/1748 in the St. Louis Art Museum no. 52:1972.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location); Stoneware Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.22 |
