DELFTWARE Beverage Wares 
 
D275. PUZZLE/POSSET POT                                                 
             Posset Pots and Cups (Double -Handled) 
London 
Dated 1674 
 
 
H.: 5 3/8" (13.6 cm); 
Diam. (body): 6 1/2" (16.5 cm); 
Diam. (with spouts): 8 1/8" (20.6 cm); 
Diam. (with handles): 10 1/8" (25.7 cm) 
 
BODY CLAY: Fine-grained pale buff. 
TIN GLAZE: White. Overall, excluding 
bottom edge. 
SHAPE: Thrown. Handles of oval 
section with attached snakes (top of 
one restored). False bottom placed 
one-third of way up interior. Spout 
between arms and initial panels opens 
into upper chamber, other spout into 
lower. Slightly concave bottom, flat- 
tened near edge, has 3/4" (1.9 cm) tube 
rising from center to open into lower 
chamber. 
DECORATION: Painted. One side 
bears arms of Worshipful Company of 
Merchant Taylors and panel inscribed 
"TWE/1674." Other side bears more or 
 
less symmetrical bouquets of flowers 
with snails and flying insects. Primary 
decoration on spouts includes scroll- 
work. Handles bear linear borders, and 
snakes are dotted. 
 
Published: Lipski and Archer, Dated 
Delftware, no. 903; Grigsby., Dated Longridge 
Delftware and slipware, pp. 880-881, pl. 71. 
Ex coll.: . P Kassebaum. 
 
 
The armorial bearings of the Worshipftul Company of Merchant Taylors have,

on this vessel, been simplified almost beyond recognition: the hanging motifs

are meant to represent "a pavilion imperial purple garnished or lined
ermine 
between two mantles [here robes) also imperial purple lined ermine."
The crest 
composed of a lamb against sunbeams and the camel supporters have been left

off, as has the motto "Concordia parvae res crescunt."I Merchant
Taylors' arms also 
appear on a caudle cup inscribed "1688/MARRIED APRILye 29," a mug
or jug 
inscribed "sBs/1694,'' and a 1722 dated tile.' 
   This unusual vessel probably had a lid originally. Although it appears
to have 
two nearly identical spouts, in reality, only the one on the armorial side
opens 
into the visible interior. The other spout gives access to a hidden lower
com- 
partment that could have been left empty or filled with some other liquid

through the hole in the bottom. If left empty, sucking the wrong tube would

have produced similar results to conventional "puzzle jugs" (see
nos. D296- 
D303) that frustrated would-be drinkers by producing only air when not 
approached correctly. 
   The floral decoration on the pot shown here derives from circa 1620 to
1680 
Ming Transitional porcelain, and delft fragments with decoration after the

same source have been found in London.4 (Such flowers were much copied in

Holland but were not taken up in England until well after the middle of the
sev- 
enteenth century.)5 Delftware with more or less similar motifs and dates
from 
1669 to 1678 include other posset pots, at least one mug, a scroll salt,
and (see 
well border) an undated "fecundity" dish and vase or jar (see nos.
D3, D208, 
D240, D365).1 Flowers and shield mantling much like those on the puzzle/pos-

set pot ornament a 1674 dated mug with the London Salters' Company arms 
and a 1682 cup with the arms of the London Company of Watermen (no. D244).

Related mantling occurs without the flowers on a 1672 Carpenters' arms posset

pot and a large armorial dish dated 1673 (no. D84).1 
 
 
300 The Longridge Collection