PETER FOSTER ANTIQUES

SPECIALIST IN EARLY BRITISH AND EUROPEAN CERAMICS

18th CENTURY

A Spode pearlware Argyll or gravy warmer c.1795-1800.

A Spode pearlware Argyll or gravy warmer c.1795-1800. The gravy is kept hot by pouring boiling water into a concealed chamber in the base. Other ceramic variations include a hot water chamber and cover within the main body of the argyll. The form is said to have been invented by the third Duke of Argyll c.1750. Argylls were made in silver and old Sheffield plate and are rare and uniquely English. They are extremely rare in ceramic. A Lambeth delftware example of this form is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. It is dated 1780. Other rare examples are known in creamware and stoneware. Height is 17cm to the top of the acorn finial. Printed in underglaze blue with the “Forest Landscape” pattern. There is a tiny chip to the spout. Spode seems to have used this pattern only on dinner wares. Unmarked except for a typical Spode workman’s mark which is recorded in Drakard and Holdway’s “Spode Transfer Printed Ware 1784-1833”, page 325.