May, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



195 



5 — Punch Bowl with Schooner Flying the English Flag 



the Boston "New's Letter" in 17 12, and milliners, apothe- 

 caries, snuff and drygoods shops all kept it. Its use spread 

 slowly as the price was excessive, for in 1721 the price was 

 twenty-five shillings a pound. By 1745 it was thirty-five 

 shillings, but even so the importation was immense, rising in 

 1763 to a million and a half pounds. By 1771 it had fallen 

 to about three shillings a pound, and with slight fluctuations 

 there the price remained. 



To contain this precious drink high prices were paid for 



American one. There is farther decoration, consisting of the 

 pretty httle floral sprigs with which we are familiar. All 

 the pieces in this illustration are typical examples of the 

 style of china which collectors for many years fondly called 

 "Lowestoft," and show the usual forms of coffee, tea, and 

 chocolate or hot-water pots. 



The earliest specimens of this kind of china had cups 

 without handles, like the one in Fig. 3, and besides those for 

 tea and coffee a certain tall slender cup was brought for 

 custard, sometimes with a cover. The three pieces shown 

 in Figs. 3 and 4 are choice examples of the "sprigged" 

 variety. Only the highest class platters had such a wealth 

 of ornament as is shown in Fig. 4, and it was usual in such 

 pieces that a coat-of-arms should decorate the center. In 

 the extensive collection belonging to the Duke of Cambridge 

 there are no handsomer pieces of festooned pattern, but in- 

 stead of the vase of flowers his are crested. 



Besides the caddies and the quaint chocolate pots, one of 

 the most desired pieces in this ware was the helmet pitcher. 

 This shape had long been made at some of the famous French 

 potteries, notably those at Rouen, but in many of the French 

 pieces made prior to the year 1700 the lip was masked. 

 The handle was also peculiar, often taking the form of a 

 long, slender, spotted leopard, but the body of the jug was 

 exactly the same as in the so-called Lowestoft, with the 

 spreading top and wide lip. The decoration on the French 

 jugs was the well-known alternating scallop derived from the 

 laces, damasks, marquetrie, and ironwork of the period. It 



6 — Blue and Gold Decoration 



tea services, and an old English letter dated 1740 states, 

 "Tea has now become the darling of our women. Almost 

 every little tradesman's wife will set sipping tea for an hour 

 or more in a morning, and it may be again in the afternoon, 

 if they can get it, and nothing will please them but to sip it 

 out of chinaware, if they can get it. They talk about spend- 

 ing thirty or forty shillings upon a tea equipage as they 

 call it." 



By far the most interesting piece in Fig. i is the bowl 

 shown at the right of the caddy. It has the American eagle, 

 shield, thunderbolts, "E Pluribus Unum" and all! It seems 

 as if some patriotic old sea captain had ordered it decorated 

 for his own special brew of punch, made potent by "W. I. 

 Rum," as they have it in the old records, and heavy with 

 spices and fragrant with limes. It may have belonged to 

 the great Elias Derby himself, who died in 1805 one of the 

 richest men in New England, and whose ships brought in 

 rolls and crates of china to Salem. On the shield below the 

 stripes you can distinguish a "D." 



There is another bowl in Fig. 2 and again in Fig. 5, also 

 for punch, and this seems to have been a ship's bowl, or to 

 have belonged to a follower of the sea, for it has on it the 

 picture of a three-masted schooner. It is flying the English 

 flag, so that seems to indicate that it was decorated before 

 1776. After that date the flag was pretty sure to be an 



must have been from one of these French jugs that the 

 Celestial potter derived his idea for the well-known "helmet 

 jug. 



But was it any wonder that such pleasing forms and 

 decorations were popular? When the ware became the col- 

 lector's fad a pretty story, probably originated by Mr. 

 Chafters, went the rounds, and detailed why a rose was so 

 often used in decoration. It was said that one of the chief 

 decorators of this ware at Lowestoft was a French refugee 



7 — Bread and Cake Plates 



