Bowl (Punch bowl)

Description

This vessel fits into a group of punch bowls often known as "ship bowls" because a ship is portrayed on the interior. The bowls often celebrated a new shipping venture. Usually, the ships are painted and many bear inscriptions identifying the ship and its master or owner. In this unusual case, the ship has been printed on via creative reuse of an image originally intended to be applied to a delftware tile. The ornament on the exterior of the bowl includes two floral motifs--one showing an insect with peapods and another showing strawberries. These designs are virtually identical to motifs in plate 82 of Robert Sayer's 1762 (London) design book "Vade Mecum; Being the Whole Art of Drawing...," which was published in London in 1762. The same engraved plate also is featured in Sayers's more famous "Ladies Amusement," which appeared in several editions from around 1760 onward. There, these relevant motifs appear on plate 8. It is difficult to know which of these design sources was copied for the printed motifs on the creamware bowl shown here.