Loving Cup

CultureEnglish
Titles
  • Loving Cup
  • Two-Handled Cup
Datec. 1762
Made inEngland
MediumSalt-glazed stoneware with cobalt
Dimensions7 3/4 × 10 5/8 × 7 11/16 in. (19.7 × 27 × 19.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Marilyn M. Elliott
Object numberB.2022.8
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Kilroy Center
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description


The profitable production of salt-glazed stoneware in England began in the 1670s with John Dwight in London. Many of his early products were close copies of the heavy German wares of the 1600s. Much finer were the white salt-glazed stonewares that developed in England in the early 1700s. Their durability, hygienic qualities, delicacy, and whiteness gave them many advantages over delftware, and they grew to have a large segment of the pottery market by the middle of the century. The potters employed several production and decoration techniques: wheel throwing, press molding, slip casting, sprigged and mold-applied decoration, and enameling, as well as scratch-brown and scratch-blue decoration. The latter, created by rubbing a cobalt compound into incised decoration cut into the leather-hard wares, appeared in the early 1740s and continued through the late 1770s.



Decorated with scratch blue, this two-handled, or loving, cup form was a presentation object, which may have commemorated a wedding. Such cups are reminders of social drinking rituals intended to structure, display, and reinforce close relationships. Passed from hand to hand, it is an emblem of the connections between drinkers.



ProvenancePrivate collection, Yorkshire, England; [Raymond E. Lane, Art Trading (U.S.) Ltd., New York]; purchased by Marilyn M. Elliott, Houston, 1993; given to MFAH, 2022.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed on front: Mrs, / Cathrine Holding / Remember me Who / Sent this Cop in / Warwick When I Come / up / 1762

[none]
Marked on bottom: Incised lines forming an abstract geometric figure

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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