ON SOME FRAGMENTS OF ENGLISH EARTHENWARE. 



185 



the ground worked upon, was formed on the surface by pouring 

 through a quill a jet of diluted clay. This simple way of orna- 

 menting earthenware was much used in England at the time when 

 Dr. Plot described it at length in his " History of Staffordshire " 

 published in 1686. 



We must acknowledge that our sketch does not commend itself 

 to admiration : but it puts us in mind of the numerous and 

 important examples of the same ware, now preserved in the 

 Museums and private collections, and which all bear witness to 

 the skill with which the slip process has been handled by the 

 English potter, and to the decorative effects he could obtain by its 

 various combinations. Not far from the place where our fragment 

 was disinterred stood the Cock-Pitt Hill works, where slip 

 decorated dishes have been made in great number ; the one of 

 which we are now speaking may, perhaps, be attributed to that 

 once important factory. 



The find included also two 

 small drinking cups. We give 

 (Fig. 3) the reproduction of one 

 of them. Both are almost identi- 

 cal in shape. From the parti- 

 cular disposition of their three 

 handles they could be ranged 

 amongst the vessels which went 

 by the name of Tygs in Stafford- 

 shire and some of the Midland 

 Counties. An indefinite number 

 of handles constituted the Tyg. 

 They were, as a rule, of large 

 size, and on festive occasions the 

 posset" was brewed in them. 

 As the common cup stood on the 

 middle of the table, the handles were so disposed, it is said, on 

 every side of the cup, in order that each guest might more 

 conveniently draw it to himself. This cannot be the case with our 

 specimens. They are so small as to show plainly that one of 



