In an era when the American household was heated by either fireplace or stove, the bed was often a cold and clammy place. Bed warmers and other similar devices were used to comfort the sleeper. This example is particularly ingenious. Its bottlelike form could be filled with hot liquid or hot sand and placed upright under the covers; the molded “footprint”surface provided a perfect resting place for the sleeper's feet.

Description: Tall bottle with cork stopper. Impression of two feet on front. Owl-like face at top. Back flat, front base rounded. Sides have rows of scallops or feathers molded on them. Glaze mottled brown and green on buff colored body.

Related: Barret 1958, p. 127, pl. 183; Ketchum 1983, no. 275; Guilland 1971, p. 277.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.