No area of collecting can offer a wider range of objects, originating from a wider range of cultures and historical periods, than articles fashioned from clay.

In a typical home there are likely to be more objects made of ceramics — earthenware, stoneware and porcelain — than any other single category of material. Most will be of the 20th century, a fair proportion will be late Victorian, and perhaps a few pieces will be earlier. (more…)

For many years tea was commonly drunk clear in the Chinese fashion and because of this and other reasons it is difficult to find a jug made earlier than the first few years of the eighteenth century. Early examples are in the pyriform shape, with a scrolled handle, sometimes positioned at a right-angle to the lip or spout. Diminutive cream jugs, standing no more than three inches high, were generally left undecorated, though others might have two rows of moulding at their waist. Both were made of a thick gauge metal and were weighty, despite their small size. In time the jug became more general, hammered up from the flat, with the cast spout and handle now opposite each other, standing upon a spreading moulded foot, and still with attractive scroll handles. (more…)

The British have not always been a sweet-toothed nation. According to G. M. Trevelyan, the country only consumed a mere 10,000 tons of sugar, even as late as 1700, although she had prosperous sugar colonies of her own. By the turn of the nineteenth century the position had altered drastically, the figure having risen to 150,000 tons. As Trevelyan pointsout, allowing for the population to have doubled, the average use of sugar by each person had risen seven and a half times during the eighteenth century. As might be expected the production of containers for the sweetener increased proportionately. (more…)