Punch pot
ca. 1755
Medium
Soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
Dimensions
Overall (confirmed): 8 5/16 × 12 1/4 × 8 3/8 in. (21.1 × 31.1 × 21.3 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
British, Longton Hall, Staffordshire
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Funds from various donors, by exchange, and Bequests of Mary Strong Shattuck and Alfred Duane Pell, by exchange, 2016
Accession Number
2016.103a, b
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant punch pot, crafted around 1755 at the Longton Hall porcelain factory in Staffordshire, England, exemplifies early British ceramic innovation. Longton Hall was one of the pioneering English factories producing soft-paste porcelain—a delicate, translucent material blending clay, ground glass, and soapstone, fired at lower temperatures than true hard-paste porcelain from China or Meissen. Measuring about 8½ inches tall and 12¼ inches wide, this pot was designed to serve punch, the era's fashionable mixed drink of spirits, fruit juices, and spices, popular among the British elite for ...