D342. SUGAR POT 
 
Probably London 
Dated 1736 
 
H.: 2 3/4" (7 cm); Diam.: 3 7/8" (9.8 cm) 
 
 
B O D Y C LAY: Medium-grained buff to 
 
orange-buff. 
 
TIN GLAZE: Light blue-grayish white 
with blue speckling on interior. Overall, 
 
excluding rim (glaze worn away) and 
 
footrim (see below). 
SHAPE: Thrown. Low footrim (possibly 
slightly ground edge). Bowl bottom 
 
very slightly concave. 
DECORATION: Painted. Chinese figure 
 
in reserve flanked by bird, fence, pavil- 
 
ion, flower, and insect motifs, all 
repeated on both sides. Borders com- 
 
posed of horizontal lines and, near rim, 
trelliswork band with two similar 
 
Chinese-symbol reserves alternating 
 
with insect reserves, Interior bottom 
 
dated 1736. 
 
Published., Lipski and Archer, Dated Delftware, 
no, f550: Horne, Collection, pt 9, no. 559 
 
 
Detail of bowl interior 
 
 
DELFTWARE Beverage Wares 
 
Tea- and Coffee Wares 
 
 
                                                                        
Actual size 
 
 
his vessel, like those in the immediately preceding entries, originally had
a 
low lid and is among pots sometimes thought to have been used as trinket
or 
wig-powder holders.' Although such usage cannot be ruled out altogether,
a 
1744 painting by G. Knapton that portrays Sir Bouchier Wray serving punch

onboard ship depicts an overturned bowl of this general type spilling out
lump 
sugar.' (Though not identical, the cupped knop on the bowl's lid is somewhat

like that of the lid to number D340.) Punch recipes commonly included sugar
as 
an ingredient, explaining the not unreasonable crossover use of a vessel
that 
probably more often formed a part of tea equipage. 
    The example shown here is one of only two recorded sugar pots with dates.

The other, inscribed "Sally Taylor 1755," depicts European figures
in a landscape. 
The figure on the Longridge vessel perhaps represents an actor, based on
the cur- 
tain at the top of the reserve (see also the interior of punch bowl no. D307).
The 
asymmetrical approach toward the design, like the superimposing of a reserve

against a contrasting scene, probably was inspired by Japanese porcelain

designs. 
 
 
1. Au stin, Delft, no. 126: l1ipski and Archer, 
Dated Delftware, nos. 1550 1551 
2. Wray was a member of the Society of Dilet- 
tanti. See Archer, V&A, p. 355, fig. 49, for 
reproductions of the painting (Society of I ilet- 
tanti collection); Hlorne, Collection, pt. 19, 
no 559, cites Margaret Macfarlane's discovery 
that the painting depicted such a bowl. 
3. See Brown, Iot liquors, p. 21 (and detail, 
p. 77), fbr a c. 1705 painting (unknown English 
artist) ofk GA'oitlteu's eli'a-Party, showing a page 
boy taking a lump froom a sugar bowl (probably 
Chinese export porcelain) with the lid leaning 
against the rim. 
 
 
4. Lipski and Archer, Dated Delftware, no. 1551. 
5. For reserves against more complex ornament 
on a 1690 1720 Japanese porcelain tfish, 
see Ayers, [inpey, and Mallet, Palaces, p. 223, 
no. 2:36. 
 
 
The Longridge Collection 377