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Mug
Bow Porcelain Factory - Enlarge image
Mug
- Place of origin:
Bow, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1750 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Bow Porcelain Factory (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Soft-paste porcelain painted with underglaze blue
- Credit Line:
Given by E. F. Broderip, Esq.
- Museum number:
C.478-1924
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 53a, case 1
Object Type
This mug was probably used for drinking beer or cider in a domestic setting. The English porcelain factories made bell-shaped mugs from the 1750s to the 1770s.
Materials & Making
The Bow factory, where the mug was made, manufactured a type of porcelain strengthened with ashes from animal bones. The result was a comparatively durable ceramic material, one that was suitable for drinking utensils and other utilitarian wares.
Trading
Bow porcelain was sold from a warehouse on the factory site and from London showrooms, but it could also be purchased at auction or from dealers in London and other cities. The factory also sold large quantities to merchants for export to the American colonies and elsewhere. Dragon-patterned blue and white wares are mentioned in the memorandum book of the clerk of one of Bow's London showrooms in 1756, when they were needed for one of the important London china and glass dealers.
Design
The dragon pattern was popular at several English porcelain factories, including Bow, Worcester, Lowestoft, Vauxhall and Liverpool, between the 1750s and the 1770s. The English factories probably originally copied the pattern from an early-18th-century Chinese dish.
