Flower container (Wall pocket)

Description

Flower containers such as this one were made in England in a broad range of materials and decorative types and are known by several terms, such as wall pocket, wall vase, flower horn, cornucopia, flower faces, and others. This example features relief neoclassical motifs, including a stylized dolphin’s head (top) and grinning satyr’s mask (bottom). Variations on this model were made in Staffordshire in salt-glazed stoneware, as shown here, and in cream-colored earthenware (creamware). A salt-glazed stoneware block mold for this form of wall pocket survives in the Potteries Museum collection in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, and an apparently unique English delftware (tin-glazed earthenware) wall pocket of this form is inscribed on the back "PM/1769." For a similarly modelled pair of tortoiseshell creamware wall pockets, see 2024.0014.042.001 and 2024.0014.042.001.