Water bottle

Dateca. 1760

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsH: 10 9/16"; Dia: 4 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-200

DescriptionCylindrical-bodied bottle with long narrow neck and ring at lip. Blue tin glaze decorated in blue with floral chinoiserie pattern.
Label TextIt has been conjectured that bottles of this shape were used on a dining table as wine bottles. An example of similar shape in the Bristol Museum decorated with a European landscape has grapes painted on the neck. This might have confirmed its function as a wine bottle, except that a washbasin painted by the same hand has the identical European landscape and grape decoration. No other recorded bottle of this shape can be paired with a basin of the same pattern, and the bottle and basin at Bristol do not have a common history before the bottle was acquired in 1947. It may simply be coincidental that they have the same pattern. This piece has characteristics of all three of the large delft potting areas.
InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceW.R. Ackland of Bristol.
J. A. Loyd Hyde, New York