Basket

Dateca. 1760

Possibly by William Littler

OriginEngland, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem (probably) or Scotland (possibly)

MediumWhite salt-glazed stoneware; cobalt-blue glazed ground (Littler's blue)

DimensionsH: 3 1/4"; Diam: 8 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1959-421

DescriptionBasket or bowl: spreading ogee foot supports thrown bowl of hemispherical shape. The bowl with a stacked concave and convex scalloped edge. The apex of the convex curves each with a round pierced hole. The sides pierced to suggest a pattern of overlapping circles with transverse braces. The turned and trimmed underside conforming to the outer shape of the spreading foot. The underside showing the greige salt glaze with orange peel texture. Covered with a cobalt blue ground in the "Littler's Blue" tradition. Slumping to the center of the bowl and accretions evident.
Label TextThough salt-glazed stonewares were subject to a variety of polychrome overglaze enamel decoration, they were also decorated with solid colors, as seen here, where a cobalt-blue ground completely covers the salt “glaze.” The so-called “Littler’s Blue” wares were made by partners Aaron Wedgwood and William Littler at Burslem, Staffordshire, but also perhaps by other potters in the area. Simeon Shaw, writing in 1829, noted that “Messrs Littler and Wedgwood first introduced” the process of dipping the green wares (i.e. unfired) into a slip-based glaze. Wedgwood perhaps continued to make them after Littler had moved on to Longton Hall. Littler continued to make these blue wares after he moved to West Pans, Scotland, in the 1760s. The exact dates and places of production are not as certain as previously thought. A dozen plates of “’Blue’ Staffordshire wares” were sold at King Street, London, in 1753 at 12s, which was approximately eight times as much as the un-decorated wares. Some was evidently exported to America, where sherds have been recovered from Williamsburg. Many of these wares bear traces of original oil gilding mimicking Chinese Kangxi prototypes.
Inscribedno
Markingsno
ProvenanceBefore 1959, private collection; 1959, Sotheby's, (London, England) [December 11, 1959, lot 39]; 1959, purchased by Tilley & Co. (London, England); 1959-present, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).