Object Type
The sugar bowls made to match Staffordshire teawares usually, as here, had lids to keep the precious sugar clean and dry. They do not have slots for spoons, since the sugar was in lump form, having been broken from a cast 'sugarloaf' and only partially crushed.

Design & Designing
The British way of brewing, serving and drinking tea differed considerably from established Chinese customs. In particular, the addition of milk and sugar was alien to the Chinese, and there were therefore no existing porcelain milk jugs or sugar basins for the Staffordshire potters to copy. Instead, from the 1730s they copied silver jugs for milk, while for sugar they reproduced the form of Chinese porcelain rice bowls, which had flanged rims and drop-in domed lids. This maintained the strong Chinese influence to be found in other types of teaware, and proved a highly practical solution.

This particular mould design has been identified from excavations on the William Greatbatch (1735-1813) pottery site at Lane Delph (now called Middle Fenton) as belonging to the last phase of his work, 1770-1782. Although most of these popular designs were made by several manufactuers, the 'fruit basket' design seems to have been made exclusively by Greatbatch.

By the end of the 18th century, creamware 'sugar boxes' had lost all trace of Chinese influence. The creamware manufacturers' pattern books show a large range of these vessels, all derived from contemporary metalwork shapes.