Description:
English delft porringer decorated in blue and purple splotches. Porringers were multipurpose, utilitarian vessels for consumption of a wide variety of foods - stews, puddings, and porridge. In England this form has long been associated with the medical practice of bleeding. The 1699 inventory of the Pickleherring Pottery, located in Southwark, listed 7,748 such vessels, some described as "blood" porringers. These shallow, single-handled bowls were made in a number of materials - silver, pewter, and earthenware - and frequent references to all types can be found in New England inventories. Locally, the 1698/9 inventory for Thomas Wells lists "one porringer" for 1 shilling and "three porringers" for 2 shillings. Jonathan Wells Jr.'s 1735 inventory lists "one porringer" for 4 shillings. Despite the availability of more refined tablewares by the mid 18th century, the popularity of porringers endured in the Connecticut River Valley. On November 2, 1763, Jeremiah Nims was listed as purchasing "2 Earthen porringers" for 1 shilling 6 pence from Elijah Williams' Deerfield store. The shallow, circular bowl has an outward flaring rim, round sides, and applied foot rim. The attached triangular-shaped handle has lobed sides and a pierced heart in the center. The sides of the bowl are painted with three rows of alternating purple and cobalt blue splotches, applied with a brush in vertical strokes; the handle is decorated with three dots of cobalt blue enamel. Fragments of similar shape and decoration have been excavated on the site of the Lambeth Pottery. A 1696 excise duty list includes under "Fine Painted" delftware, consecutive entries for "Wine Cups and Blood porringers," "Monteeth Basons," and "Porringers." This indicates that blood porringers differed from other porringers. Seventy years later, in the July 25, 1766, Virginia Gazette, Norfolk shopkeepers Balfour and Barraud offered for sale "handle bowls" but do not specify the material. Dates on delftware porringers range from 1650 to 1765. The 1699 inventory of John Robbins, late manager of the Pickleherring Potteries lists under "White and Painted Perfect Ware" (i.e., finished delftware), porringers, some of them curiously identified as "Spanish" or "blood." Spanish may identify the shape and blood the use.Other porringers in the list are identified by size- "half pinte," "pinte," or "slight"; by their color, "white"; or by quality, with some being identified as "faulty." Some of the same terms reappear under unfired "Clay Ware" and once-fired "Biskett Ware." The former includes "Toy" (i.e., miniature) porringers, and the latter, "Gally porrengers." "Gally," normally a synonym for "delftware," perhaps differentiates them from stoneware examples, since the latter pottery also was produced at the factory. Tin-glazed porringers have been excavated among factory waste from several London sites, including that relating to Lambeth's Norfolk House factory (active circa 1680 to 1737). One handle type from the site resembles that on Historic Deerfield's porringer in its having seven lobes but it is associated with a straight-sided bowl waster. A site in Lambeth, at 2-5 Moreley Street (1680s context) and, in Southwark, the Pickleherring, Tooley Street, New Hibernia Wharf, and St. Saviour's sites, also yielded lobed porringer handles with piercing resembling that of the Historic Deerfield handle. Based on archaeological evidence, blotched decoration of the type on Historic Deerfield's porringer is found most often on London delftware. Other porringers with related colored ornament are known, as well as a mug, a dish, and other shapes.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1998.35 |
