Flower container (Quintal flower horn or five-finger vase)

Description

Multi-nozzled, circular-section flower containers are known from the Near East as early as 2500 BC, but the flattened types referred to in England as “Quintals,” Quintal Flower Horns,” or “Five Fingered Flower Pots” derived from late 17th-century tin-glazed earthenware (Delftware) vases from the Netherlands. Fashionable Dutch examples from the Greek A factory were excavated at Queen Mary’s famous palace at Het Loo. The long-term, widespread popularity of quintals is hinted at in illustrated period catalogues from England. The 1798 catalogue of the James and Charles Whitehead factory of Hanley, Staffordshire, was published in English, German, Dutch and French and illustrates a vase of a generally similar shape to the example shown here. Well into the 1800s, quintals were made in English pearlware, lusterware and other ceramics for both domestic and foreign markets. Evidence for such vessels in America includes this somewhat crudely modeled earthenware example, possibly molded off of an English original.