Posset pot without spout

Date1699

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsH: 5 1/2"; D: 6 3/4"; Handle to handle: 10 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1961-100

DescriptionSlightly bulbous-bodied pot with wide cylindrical neck, short foot ring, and 2 strap-loop handles with scroll base terminals. Cover missing. White tin glaze decorated in blue with a Chinese scene of flowers and birds, including ducks, a peacock, and songbirds; striations on handles; band of scrollwork at neck with inscription "16 HBA 99" inside and oval reserve.
Label TextVessels following the posset pot form but without the spout are sometimes referred to as "loving cups." They were made in the last two decades of the seventeenth century and into the middle of the eighteenth. Probably used to be drunk from, they might be considered a transition between the posset pot and the punch bowl. Some of them certainly were used for drinking posset, judging from a privately owned slipware example with the inscription "ROBART POOL MADE THIS CUP AND WITH A CUP POSET FIL." The London attribution is based on the runny pink glaze on the interior, which relates to London-made pieces.
Inscribed"16 HBA 99" inside an oval reserve.
MarkingsNo
ProvenanceSold at auction in 1961 without information concerning owner (Published: Sotheby & Co., CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH POTTERY, March 28, 1961 (London, 1961, lot 43, p. 14) Purchased by Tilley U Co.