Images(3)

Perdifume

Date1824-1826

Maker Bailey & Batkin

OriginEngland, Staffordshire, Longton, Lane End

MediumEarthenware, red (lusterware)

DimensionsOH: 13 5/8" Diam. (base): 5 1/4"

Credit LineGift of James W. Shaeffer

Object number2016-12

DescriptionA perdifume or gas consumer of molded red earthenware covered in silver luster (lusterware). The globe or orb surmounted by a pierced lion recumbent on radiating acanthus leaves. Orb sits on a fluted conical support molded with the Royal Arms above a medallion enclosing "BAILEY & BATKIN / SOLE / PATENTEES". The base edged with a grapevine border between two rows of beads. Conical shape lustered on the interior hollow. Hole in base of orb.
Label TextBailey and Batkin were known for their lusterware production in the first quarter of the 19th century. The 1825 edition of The London Journal of Arts and Sciences by William Newton lists William Bailey's 1824 patent for this globe and conical form, identifying it as a gas consumer or perdifume. Similar to a metal form for which a patent had been secured three years earlier by Debaufer, the object was intended to hang over a gas lamp and draw the fumes within its orb. How successful the object was remains to be determined. Newton and his editors were open minded, but skeptical of the object's ability to draw fumes.

The patent read in part, "The subject of this patent is a hollow globe with a trumpet mouth, to be suspended over a gas-burner for the purpose of receiving the smoke and other vapours emitted in the combustion of the gas. Such an apparatus was described in our second volume, as 'Debaufer's Perdifume' ... The patentee forms a hollow globe of porcelain, and attaches to its aperture a conical or trumpet-mouthed chimney of the same material... "
InscribedBAILEY & BATKIN / SOLE / PATENTEES