Posset pot

Object Type
One of the earliest glass posset pots to survive, this object follows closely the shape of spouted vessels in silver, pewter or tin-glazed earthenware.

Materials & Making
Not surpisingly, very few English crystal soda-glass vessels of the period 1660-1675 have survived. Even the common imported Venetian types, originally much more numerous than English products, are extremely rare today. Soda glass was not only light in weight but could be blown paper thin. The lead glass that was developed by the glassmaker George Ravenscroft in the 1670s was much preferred, in spite of its much higher price. This suggests that the British public considered the fragile soda glass to be an expendable luxury.

Ownership & Use
The most valued or the least used objects are often the ones that tend to survive. Certainly, a comparatively large number of glass posset pots do survive, in spite of their being used with hot liquids. This may be the cause of the crack in this example, which was originally repaired with wire rivets. Posset, consisting of warm milk curdled with ale and often thickened with eggs, was drunk only in the winter. By the end of the 17th century it was no longer considered fashionable. A number of these redundant posset pots have been re-discovered in the pantries of wealthy households.