Images(8)

2022-34, Flower Container. Shown with Flower Container OBJ-16JA-00008

Flower Container

Dateca. 1700

OriginEngland, London, Vauxhall

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsOverall: 9 × 11 1/4 × 7 1/2in. (22.9 × 28.6 × 19.1cm)

Credit LineBequest of Troy D. Chappell

Object number2022-34

DescriptionFlower vase: circular spreading foot rises to inverted bell-shaped body of urn form with ruffled rim; applied to the opposite sides of the body are two handles resembling twisted rope, the antefixes of splayed twisted crescent shape; the body is covered allover in tin-glaze, except the underside of the foot; the exterior is decorated with blue-painted geometric and floral motifs, the central scene on each side depicting a large bird perched on a rock amidst vegetation of meandering vines, flowers, and flying insects.
Label TextMade in Vauxhall, England, around 1700, this stunning tin-glazed earthenware object with its twisted rope handles and ruffled pie-crimped rim is a remarkable survival. Such objects graced the gardens of British country houses and subsequently the gardens of private and public properties in early America. Tin-glazed earthenware flower containers like this turn up archaeologically in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century contexts throughout the American colonies including Virginia, but they are rare finds above ground. A pedestal foot from one vessel was recovered at the Tayloe House and Anthony Hay sites in Williamsburg, Virginia. And the handles with crescent roll-like junctures on this intact example resemble the shape of the twisted handles on an English tin-glazed bleu persan decorated flower vessel recovered at the Wren Building on the campus of the College of William and Mary.