Wall pocket

Dateca. 1760

MediumWhite salt-glazed stoneware

DimensionsH (tip to rim): 8 3/4"; W (side to side): 5 7/8"; Depth (nose to back): 1 7/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1952-505

DescriptionWhite salt-glazed stoneware wall pocket with general inverted triangular outline having stylized finely veined leaves with twisted bottom forming lowest point. Frontal view of woman's face with hair parted in the middle and curling back from her forehead. A scroll from ear level down below the chin on either side frames the face. Bow above forehead is part of a pierced baroque bonnet of what appears to be radiating acanthus leaves. The flat back of the wall pocket is pierced with two holes for hanging.
Label TextIn 1762, the New York firm of Keeling & Morris announced the sale of “A complete Assortment of the most fashionable K[i]nds of Glass and Stone Ware” including “Venis Flower Faces both green and white.” Odd as the wording sounds, the merchants almost certainly were describing wall pockets like this example in the shape of Venus, or a beautiful woman’s face. This pattern of hanging flower vase is known in white stoneware and in green-glazed earthenware.

These little-documented objects probably were used in dining rooms and parlors to hold fresh or silk blossoms and greenery. Richard Olney’s probate inventory provides further documentation for the form in early America; in addition to the stoneware candlestick, he owned a “stone hanging flower pot.”
ProvenanceVendor: D. M. & P. Manheim, New York

Exhibition(s)