Sauce Boat
ca. 1753 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
Sauce boats became an essential item on the British dinner table around 1720, when French-style sauces became popular. English ceramics factories often copied sauce boats from examples made in silver. Early sauce boats were open boat-shaped vessels with one or two pouring lips, but late-18th-century 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, citrus juice, capers, herbs and spices 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, and flavoured with parsley, onions, celery, anchovies, oysters, cockles or eggs. Butter sauces, served in smaller sauce boats or butter boats, frequently accompanied vegetables. A hot sauce of wine, butter and sugar was the most common one for puddings.
People
The Derby factory appears to have been founded by Andrew Planch‚ (died 1805), a second-generation Huguenot who had been apprenticed to a London jeweller. Planch‚ may have employed London sculptors to supply models to be put into production at Derby.
Sauce boats became an essential item on the British dinner table around 1720, when French-style sauces became popular. English ceramics factories often copied sauce boats from examples made in silver. Early sauce boats were open boat-shaped vessels with one or two pouring lips, but late-18th-century 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, citrus juice, capers, herbs and spices 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, and flavoured with parsley, onions, celery, anchovies, oysters, cockles or eggs. Butter sauces, served in smaller sauce boats or butter boats, frequently accompanied vegetables. A hot sauce of wine, butter and sugar was the most common one for puddings.
People
The Derby factory appears to have been founded by Andrew Planch‚ (died 1805), a second-generation Huguenot who had been apprenticed to a London jeweller. Planch‚ may have employed London sculptors to supply models to be put into production at Derby.
Object details
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Glassy soft-paste porcelain, with naturalistic handle cast from a crayfish, painted in enamels |
| Brief description | Sauceboat, glassy soft-paste porcelain enamelled in colours, Derby, c. 1753. |
| Physical description | In the shape of a fluted shell, the handle formed as a piece of green and turquoise sea-weed attached to the back of a crayfish or small lobster which is painted red as though cooked. The shell is white except for seaweed-like encrustations. The whole rests on a base formed by seaweed-clad rock to which are attached tellins and other bivalve shells as well as red coral. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Object history | Made at the Derby porcelain factory |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Object Type Sauce boats became an essential item on the British dinner table around 1720, when French-style sauces became popular. English ceramics factories often copied sauce boats from examples made in silver. Early sauce boats were open boat-shaped vessels with one or two pouring lips, but late-18th-century 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, citrus juice, capers, herbs and spices 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, and flavoured with parsley, onions, celery, anchovies, oysters, cockles or eggs. Butter sauces, served in smaller sauce boats or butter boats, frequently accompanied vegetables. A hot sauce of wine, butter and sugar was the most common one for puddings. People The Derby factory appears to have been founded by Andrew Planch‚ (died 1805), a second-generation Huguenot who had been apprenticed to a London jeweller. Planch‚ may have employed London sculptors to supply models to be put into production at Derby. |
| Bibliographic reference | Young, Hilary. English Porcelain, 1745-95. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1999. 229p., ill. ISBN 1851772820. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.277-1976 |
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| Record created | December 2, 2002 |
| Record URL |
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