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Pyrophorus vase
Wedgwood - Enlarge image
Pyrophorus vase
- Place of origin:
Etruria, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1815 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Wedgwood (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Cane-coloured stoneware with <i>rosso antico</i> reliefs
- Credit Line:
Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology
- Museum number:
2380-1901
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 52a, case 3
Object Type
'Pyrophorus vases' were ancestors of the modern match box. Their name derived from the Greek, pur for 'fire' and phoros for 'bringing'. 'Instant light boxes' had been made in metal since 1810, and in 1812 Wedgwood began to manufacture them in a decorative ceramic version. The idea of making them in pottery came from the chemists Accum & Garden of Compton Street, Soho, London, who supplied Wedgwood with the matches, acid and acid bottles. The vases were soon copied at Josiah Spode's factory.
Use
Wooden splints were held in the central hole. One end of the splints had been dipped in chlorate of potash and sugar. When dipped in sulphuric acid these produced a flame. Pyrophorus vases were initially popular, probably because of their novelty, but they were not made after about 1830. Soon after this date the first friction matches of the modern type were introduced. By the mid-19th century the original purpose of these vases had been forgotten, and for more than a century they were thought to have been inkwells.
