Basins with a diameter of six to eight inches were intended for food and drink. Contemporary references to “breakfast bowls” and “mess bowls” in all likelihood refer to this size basin. Alternatively they may have also been used as slop bowls, for disposing of cold tea and dregs.

Related examples: Hood 1965, p. 15, no. 22; Fairbanks 1974, pp. 55, no, no. 215; Montgomery 1978, p. 144, no. 8–11; Barquist 1985, p. 39, no. 226.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, 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.