Punch bowl

Dateca. 1760

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsH: 3 1/8"; D(top): 7 1/2"; D (foot ring): 3 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1975-93

DescriptionSmall shallow-sided bowl, slightly tapering footing with thick join to body. Tin glaze, very blue, with a few flecks of cobalt, and thick 1/2" exterior decorated with group of branches and flowers outlined and hatched in red extending down from rim; small horizontal hachured leaf spray on opposite side. Interior inscribed in script handwriting, "Success to Trade". All decoration in black (which gives no evidence of being manganese). Brushstrokes steady and regular.
Label TextOn most bowls the inscriptions wishing "success" refer to ships, such as "Success to the Endeavour" (CWF accession 1960-8), or to the Seven Years' War, such as "Success to the British Arms" (accession 1978-122) and "Success to the King of Prussia" (accessions 1978-121 and 1980-1999). Less frequently, success is wished to an individual, such as "Success to Roger Harrisson" (accession 1958-264), or to some activity, such as "Success to the Plow" and "Success to The Miller," or as on this bowl, "Success to Trade." At least three other recorded bowls and four partial bowls bear this inscription and one is recorded with the inscription "Trade & Navigation." The black decoration is rare (see accession 1983-89). A bottle of the Liverpool shape in the Bristol Museum has the same black ornament.

Parts of four similarly inscribed bowls have been excavated in the United States, two of them in Virginia. The full inscription appears on the base of a bowl found in Chesterfield, and the final letters of "Success", the word "to", and part of what is probably the "T" in Trade are on the base of a bowl excavated in Williamsburg at the Timberlake and Dana site (2JA.0187). The other two bowls were found in Charleston, South Carolina, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
InscribedInscribed "Success to Trade" on the interior of the bowl.
MarkingsNo
ProvenanceJellinek & Sampson Antiques, London