Tobacco jar
De Vergulde Blompot of Molslaan
Category
Ceramics
Date
1770 - 1800
Materials
Ceramic, brass
Measurements
279 x 152 mm
Place of origin
Delft
Order this imageCollection
Mompesson House, Wiltshire
NT 723461.1
Summary
A tobacco jar, De Vergulde Blompot, Delft, late 18th century. Painted with a stereotyped figure of a Native American smoking a pipe and seated on a pedestal beside a covered tobacco jar inscribed “CAROTTE” before a tall leafy tobacco plant. To the right two ships under sail, and to the left a barrel revealing tobacco leaves beside other cargo vessels, one monogrammed VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Compay), all on a plateau beneath a cloudy sky. With a brass cover. "Violet" may refer to a blend of snuff.
Full description
Tobacco was first imported to Spain around 1528. The Spanish and Portuguese established a monopoly on the import of tobacco into Europe as its popularity began to expand and spread geographically. Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), granted a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) in 1584 to explore and colonise land in the Americas, is credited for bringing back to England the first tobacco from Virginia, which became an enormously lucrative crop – “brown gold”– and a contributor not only to European colonisation in North America from the early seventeenth century onward, but also to the development of the transatlantic slave trade. By the end of the seventeenth century, England had assumed control over large tobacco plantations along the coast of North America and was supplying customers across Europe. Tobacco, cured, fermented and dried on the plantations by enslaved people, arrived in Europe in the form of large rolls, which at the tobacco shops were often stored in large Dutch Delftware jars labelled with their contents.
Marks and inscriptions
On base: BP (manufacturer's mark, De Vergulde Blompot) As part of vase design: VOC and VIOLET
Makers and roles
De Vergulde Blompot of Molslaan, ceramic manufacturer