Bottle
Category
Ceramics
Date
1760 - 1770
Materials
White salt-glazed stoneware with enamels
Measurements
220 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Staffordshire
Order this imageCollection
Treasurer's House, North Yorkshire
NT 592458
Summary
Water bottle or guglet, white salt-glazed stoneware, flat base with some salt encrustation to edges, bulbous body, tall narrow neck and ‘garlic mouth’ with flaring lip; hand painted in pink, red, green, yellow and blue enamels with design of flowers, leaves and a butterfly. Probably made in Staffordshire, 1760s.
Full description
Frank Green (1861-1954) gave Treasurer’s House to the National Trust in 1930. His gift included some important ceramics, though some of the pieces shown in the house today were added by the National Trust from the 1970s to 1990s. The display of British pottery in the Dining Room, which includes this water bottle, is part of Frank Green’s original collection. It is probably the object described in an inventory taken in 1930 as ‘A salt glazed pottery vase, painted flowers, 9 ½” high.’This water bottle – a type often known as a guglet – was probably made in Staffordshire in the 1760s. It is made from a type of ceramic called white salt-glazed stoneware. This was first developed in Britain to emulate fashionable, expensive Chinese porcelain. Pipe clay from Devon or Dorset was often used to make it, which was mixed with sand or calcined (heated) and crushed flint. The preparation of these materials could cause serious health problems for the people working with them, particularly if inhaled. White salt-glaze was fired at a high temperature (about 1200°C). A large amount of salt was added when the kiln was at its hottest, after about forty hours of firing. The salt was poured into holes at the top of the kiln using an iron ladle, repeated regularly over the course of about six hours. The intense heat caused the salt to split into its component parts – a potentially harmful chlorine gas and sodium oxide. The sodium reacted with the surface of the pots, coating them with a fine layer of glass – a salt-glaze. The smooth, pale surface could be left undecorated but was also a brilliant canvas for coloured enamels. The colours used to decorate this bottle (sometimes described as ‘famille rose’) are also influenced by Chinese porcelain.Bottles like this could be supplied with a matching basin for washing (see, e.g., J. Griffin (2005) The Leeds Pottery, Vol. II, fig. 773-6). The form was also produced in creamware (e.g., Leeds Pottery), soft-paste porcelain (e.g., Derby, Worcester, Lowestoft) and tin-glazed earthenware (e.g., V&A CIRC.949-1924).