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D289. POSSET POT 
Bristol or London 
1700-1720 
H.: 10 1/2" (26.7 cm); 
Diam. (body): 10 1/8" (25.7 cm); 
Diam. (with spout): 10 3/4" (27.3 cm); 
Diam. (with handles): 13 314" (34.9 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Fine-grained buff. 
TIN GLAZE: White. Overall, excluding 
edge of foot. 
SHAPE: Thrown. Handles are pairs of 
rolls, flattened on interiors, with 
scrolled terminals flanked by applied 
scrolls. Twisted "snakes" on handle 
spines. Spout of oval section. Bottom 
echoes exterior profile. 
DECORATION: Painted. Two pairs of 
bird-and-flower motifs framed in 
foliate and linear scrollwork, Borders 
composed of horizontal lines and 
bands with, respectively, floral reserves, 
filled arcs and curvilinear motifs, filled 
triangles, and (on foot) pseudofliuting, 
Foliate band on spout. 
This unusually large posset pot and a somewhat smaller one of approxi- 
mately the same shape originally had lids. Like the one shown here, the smaller
pot has twisted snakes on its handles, but it differs in its bird-and-flower
motifs., The painted decoration on both pots indicates that they were made
at 
Bristol. As early as 1687, domed feet occur on snake-handled posset pots
with 
convex neck "moldings"; examples without the neck moldings bear
dates into 
the early 1700s.1 Leafy borders resembling that on the spout of the pot shown
here also occur on a polychrome plate dated 1707, a 1710 dated shoe, and
is 
especially close in style to that on a blue and white mug dated 1720. For
birds 
and flowers in the same color range on a salt, see number D214. 
1. Britton, Bristol, no. 4.16. 
2. Lipski and Archer. Dated 
Delftware, nos. 917, 918 (with twist- 
ed snakes), 933, 940 944, 95:3. 
3. Ibid., nos. 250, 1721; Britton, 
Bristol, no. 6.5. 
The Longridge Collection 315