The cuspidor, which takes its name from the Latin and old French words meaning to spit, is a vessel designed to sit on the floor and receive either spittle or expectorated tobacco. Traditionally the form has an inward sloping upper section that drains into the lower body. With a large population of tobacco chewers in nineteenth-century America, the form, produced in both ceramics and metalwares, found widespread use.  Despite its mundane purpose, the designer of this example aspired to be more stylish, as evidenced by the finely molded classical anthemion on the sides and the classical fluting on the upper section.

Related Examples: Classicism was not the only high-style reference for American Pottery Co. cuspidors. For an octagonal example inspired by medieval motifs, see New Jersey Pottery 1972, no. 41. 

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.