Puzzle tyg: C.127-1928

Maker(s)

Production: Hubble, Nicholas (Probably)

Entities

• Puzzle tyg
• puzzle drinking vessel with four handles

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware
• Slipware

Notes

History note: Foster's Auction Rooms, London; S G Fenton, Cranbourne Street, London, from whom purchased for £45 on 20 November 1917 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Wrotham ⪼ Kent ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

17th Century, Mid#
Charles I
Production date: circa AD 1645

Note

Drinking cups with more than one handle were the great speciality of Wrotham potters in the seventeenth century, and have been described as 'tygs' by collectors since the nineteenth century. They were made of red or brown clay decorated in white with slip-trailing, moulded prunts, and heraldic motifs on applied pads of clay, which appear yellow under the lead glaze. Many of them bear dates and the potter's initials likewise on applied pads of clay, sometimes accompanied by or two other sets of initials presumably those of their owners. Twisted two-colour edges and white bun-shaped finials were features of the double-loop handles, usually, three or four (as here), but sometimes only two. This example is a puzzle vessel which originally had a sucking spout at the top of each handle, only one of which emitted the liquid contents.

Either of the two sets of initials could be those of the potter or the recipient: GR for George Richardson, and NH for Nicholas Hubble. The potters were related because Richardson had married Mary Hubble in 1643, and one of his daughters was to marry Nicholas Hubble junior, who was one of the executors of Richardson's will in 1687. Kiddell in 1954 recorded twenty-one pots by Richardson between 1642 and 1677, and seven by Hubble, senior between 1649 and 1687.(see Documentation).