Sugar basin

Object Type
Since the Chinese did not use sugar in their tea, English potters were obliged to copy the most suitable form of Chinese bowl used for some other purpose and adapt it to serve as a sugar bowl. Thus the Staffordshire sugar bowl of the 1720-1760 period most closely resembles a Chinese porcelain covered bowl, the deeply flanged rim holding a saucer-like lid.

Design & Designing
Although the basic bowl form was found to be ideal for its purpose, the decoration of these early Staffordshire stonewares was entirely innovative, not to say experimental. Freed from plain thrown forms by the discovery of the technique of slip-casting with plaster moulds, these potters at first relied on inexperienced block-cutters to produce original designs for their moulds. Not surprisingly, some of these are quite bizarre, typified by the design of this bowl where heraldry is intermingled with mythical beasts and scenes of Chinese tea-brewing. It is unlikely that the decorated panels had any meaning beyond that of pure decoration.