Description:
English delft washbasin with a matching bottle (HD 2001.5.1), decorated in cobalt blue. Delftware bottle and basin sets must have been very common in the 18th century, but only rarely have they survived to the present. Made at a time when few people bathed in tubs, these sets were intended for washing the face, hands, and body. Moreau de Saint Méry noted that American women “carefully wash their faces and hands, but not their mouths, seldom their feet and even more seldom their bodies.” Given the low standards of personal hygiene in the 18th century, unpleasant odors pervaded all manner of social settings. Following a fashionable party in January of 1729, Lord Hervey (1665-1751) noted, “At court last night, there was dice, dancing, crowding, sweating and stinking in abundance as usual.” In lieu of washing, some made use of perfumes, incense, and scented waters. But Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) advised his son that “in your person you must be accurately clean; and your teeth, hands, and nails superlatively so … Nothing looks more ordinary, vulgar, and illiberal, than dirty hands.” The dark cobalt blue pigment and highly detailed painting on this example characterize late London delftware. This bottle’s baluster shape is traditionally associated with vessels employed for washing rather than for storing liquids. Similar forms were marketed in Boston, and the “Delph … Bottles & Basons” advertised in the "Boston News-Letter" of April 4, 1771 may have resembled this set. The bottle is decorated with scrollwork and stylized flower buds inside the shallow cup-shaped lip; vertical scrollwork around the long cylindrical neck; and three different floral sprays and scratched leaves around the body. Unlike punch bowls, basins have their main decoration on the inside where it would be most visible. The interior is decorated with three different floral sprays and scratched leaves around the sides and a circle of vertical scrollwork around the well; the exterior has three floral sprays. The basin's everted rim allows it to fit tightly into the cut-out hole on the flat top of a wooden stand, and its crimped edge provides an easier grip to remove the bowl. The basin is supported on a circular foot ring.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2001.5.2 |
