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Sauce boat
Longton Hall porcelain factory - Enlarge image
Sauce boat
- Place of origin:
Longton, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1755 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Longton Hall porcelain factory (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Soft-paste porcelain painted with purple enamel and moulded
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Herbert Allen
- Museum number:
C.665-1935
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 53a, case 1
Object Type
This sauce boat is one from a pair. The other is museum number C.665A-1935. Sauce boats became an essential item on the British dinner table around 1720, when French-style sauces became popular. English ceramic factories often copied silver sauce boats. Mid-18th-century sauce boats were open boat-shaped vessels with one or two pouring lips, but later ones were often tureen-shaped with a central foot. Both types could require an underdish to prevent spillage.
Use
The five main sauces introduced by the French were béchamel, brune/espagnol, tomate, mayonnaise and velout‚. Gravies made from roasted meat flavoured with wine and other ingredients were also popular in 18th-century Britain. Other sauces had a 'roux' base, made by combining butter or lard with flour and broth or milk.
Materials & Making
The body of this sauce boat was formed in a two-piece mould. These moulds were made from a master model of the shape supplied by a freelance modeller, in this case probably Aaron Wood (1717-1785). Freelance modellers like Wood first modelled the shape of the vessel in clay and then cast a set of hollow plaster moulds from their originals. They used these moulds to make fired stoneware versions of their designs, and sold these to pottery and porcelain factories.
