Bin label, "PORT"

Dateca. 1800

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsOL: 5 3/8"; OH: 3 1/16"; Thickness: 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1967-474

DescriptionWine bin label, flat plaque with a ring projecting from the top. Bluish tin glaze, with edges and reverse unglazed, inscribed with what is probably a numeral I and "PORT" in blue.
Label TextLabels designed to hang in wine cellars bore the name of a wine or sometimes a number. They were produced from the last years of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, the earlier ones in delft and the later in creamware, pearlware, or whiteware.

This label is inscribed "PORT," a shortened form of Port O Port or Port O Porto, the name used for a red wine during the seventeenth century and earlier. These names derive from Oporto, the Portuguese town where the wine was made. Although the upper inscription on this label could be an I or a J rather than the number 1, the latter seems more logical given that another surviving bin label has a 2 above the word port.

The London attribution for this label is based on the color of the lettering and the glaze.
Inscribed"PORT" in blue.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceTobias Jellinek, London