Description:
English creamware chestnut or orange basket with an elaborate pierced, domed cover and solid press-molded base, which is impressed "WEDGWOOD / O" on the underside of the base. Used both in confectionary and ceramics, open basketwork was one of the visual signs for dessert because of the tradition of using woven baskets for harvesting and serving fruit. Along with other potters, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) imitated these earlier baskets in pierced creamware, calling them 'croquants' in his catalogues. Wedgwood’s first creamware catalogue, issued in 1774, illustrated a chestnut or orange basket with a pierced lid; the form is still made today at the modern factory. This example (shape No. 32 in the 1774 catalogue) seems to have been produced with a solid molded or pierced base. This basket has a flower finial over the pierced cover decorated with molded leaves, interlocking scrolls, and husks, and an overhanging rim; the body has similar press-molded decoration around the sides; and the foot has incised, spiral lines and a band of interlocking leaves around the rim. Condition: There is a small chip inside the cover, restoration to tip of finial) The "O" mark is a tally mark - not be be understood by the general public, but a method for a potter to keep track of their work.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.33.2 |
