Basket

Dateca. 1765

MediumWhite salt-glazed stoneware

DimensionsOverall: 2 3/16 x 9 5/16 x 12 7/16in. (5.6 x 23.7 x 31.6cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1937-212

DescriptionAn oval white salt-glazed stoneware dish, press-molded with a basket pattern and leaves with vining tendrils. The two applied handles are in the form of vines. There is no foot on the object.
Label TextBread baskets were used for the sweet cakes, cookies, and biscuits served during dessert. A fragment excavated in Williamsburg from the Custis well corresponds to this example, which mimics wicker ornamented with leaves and fruit.

Baskets for the table were also fashioned of stoneware. In inventory listings, the form is described as being for bread, as in John Fendall’s 1764 estate appraisal of “2 ditto [white stone] Bread Basketts” which, together with three fruit dishes and a fish dish, were valued at nine shillings. Adam Thomson of Prince George’s County, Maryland, also owned a bread basket and fruit dishes when he died in 1768. The association of baskets with forms for fruit suggests that bread baskets were used for the sweet cakes, cookies, and biscuits served during dessert. A fragment excavated in Williamsburg from the Custis well corresponds to an intact press-molded example made to mimic wickerwork ornamented with leaves and fruit.
ProvenancePurchased from Guitel Montague, New York City, New York.

Exhibition(s)