This punch bowl features a lively toast, “Another Bowl and Then,” inscribed in the bottom of the bowl. The toast may derive from a scene in Homer’s The Odyssey in which Odysseus invites the Cyclops, Polyphemus, to wash down his meal with a bowl of wine. Polyphemus found the wine delicious and asked for another bowl and then another, becoming so befuddled he fell asleep, allowing Odysseus and his men to escape. Punch bowls featuring the saying “Another Bowl and Then” were quite common in this country and are found on delft examples as well as in pearlware like this one. Ten delft bowls inscribed with the saying were unearthed at an 18th century tavern site in Virginia, thus proving their use on American shores.       

The exterior of the bowl is decorated in the “China House” pattern, a sequence of attractively stylized houses, fences, and trees derived from Chinese export and earlier tin-glazed wares. Among a number of popular, Asian-inspired motifs finished in underglaze blue, China House was by far the most common decorative pattern used on pearlware, a white-bodied earthenware coated in a clear, bluish-tinted glaze. The development of pearlware is frequently attributed to Josiah Wedgewood, who introduced it in 1779, but earlier examples, known as China glaze, were made by other manufacturers as early as 1775. China House decorated pearlware is frequently found in archaeological excavations of American sites dating to the end of the 18th century.

Bowls such as this were used to serve punch, a beverage that was at the height of fashion during the period. Derived from paunch, an Indian word for five, the classic punch recipe contained five ingredients: rum, water, sugar, juice, and spice. Punch was served at most festive social occasions in the late 18th century.