To Serve and Project: The Bow Porcelain Coffee Pot, 1760

Coffee Pot
Bow Porcelain Factory, 1760
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This ornate pot was for intended for making and serving coffee. In the Eighteenth Century, when this coffee pot was made, coffee was usually drunk with milk, and often sweetened with sugar. At the time, Britain was importing approximately 3,000,000 lbs of coffee beans per annum, and nearly two-thirds of that came from plantations in the West Indies with the remainder from Arabia.

Coffee pots very similar to this one were made at the Niderviller faïence factory in Lorraine on the edge of eastern France. This example, from c. 1760, was made in at the Bow Porcelain Factory, London. Both the Bow and Niderviller pieces were possibly copied from an original pot which was made at the Italian Doccia porcelain factory near Florence.


The Bow factory use a porcelain making technique which strengthened the material with bone ash, making it suitable for tea- and table-wares. Bow was primarily concerned with utilitarian wares, but every so often, they’d create a special luxury piece like this one.

The pot is baluster shaped and it is modeled with a Rococo scroll and shell motif. The piece has been painted with exotic birds; with scrolls picked out in puce, blue and gilding.

The Home Beautiful: The Lily Pond Table, c. 1913

Table
Omega Workshops
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This oblong table of painted pine wood with curved ends is supported on slightly tapered legs which are united by square-end stretchers and one flat central stretcher. The table is special because of the top which is painted in oils with a lily-pond design consisting of an assortment of abstract forms in polychrome on a black ground.  This painted panel is outlined by a red border within an outer border of green. The framework is painted in a matching hue of olive green and the legs have chamfers at the angles which are painted a dusty red.

Made between 1913-1919 in England, this table is the work of the designer Roger Fry (1866-1934) and the painter Duncan Grant (1885-1978) for the famed Omega Workshops.

The Home Beautiful: The Lily Pond Table, c. 1913

Table
Omega Workshops
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This oblong table of painted pine wood with curved ends is supported on slightly tapered legs which are united by square-end stretchers and one flat central stretcher. The table is special because of the top which is painted in oils with a lily-pond design consisting of an assortment of abstract forms in polychrome on a black ground.  This painted panel is outlined by a red border within an outer border of green. The framework is painted in a matching hue of olive green and the legs have chamfers at the angles which are painted a dusty red.

Made between 1913-1919 in England, this table is the work of the designer Roger Fry (1866-1934) and the painter Duncan Grant (1885-1978) for the famed Omega Workshops.

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: The Bow Porcelain Coffee Pot, 1760

Coffee Pot
Bow Porcelain Factory, 1760
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This ornate pot was for intended for making and serving coffee. In the Eighteenth Century, when this coffee pot was made, coffee was usually drunk with milk, and often sweetened with sugar. At the time, Britain was importing approximately 3,000,000 lbs of coffee beans per annum, and nearly two-thirds of that came from plantations in the West Indies with the remainder from Arabia.

Coffee pots very similar to this one were made at the Niderviller faïence factory in Lorraine on the edge of eastern France. This example, from c. 1760, was made in at the Bow Porcelain Factory, London. Both the Bow and Niderviller pieces were possibly copied from an original pot which was made at the Italian Doccia porcelain factory near Florence.


The Bow factory use a porcelain making technique which strengthened the material with bone ash, making it suitable for tea- and table-wares. Bow was primarily concerned with utilitarian wares, but every so often, they’d create a special luxury piece like this one.

The pot is baluster shaped and it is modeled with a Rococo scroll and shell motif. The piece has been painted with exotic birds; with scrolls picked out in puce, blue and gilding.

The Home Beautiful: The Bow Porcelain Coffee Pot, 1760

Coffee Pot
Bow Porcelain Factory, 1760
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This ornate pot was for intended for making and serving coffee.  In the Eighteenth Century, when this coffee pot was made, coffee was usually drunk with milk, and often sweetened with sugar. At the time, Britain was importing approximately 3,000,000 lbs of coffee beans per annum, and nearly two-thirds of that came from plantations in the West Indies with the remainder from Arabia.

Coffee pots very similar to this one were made at the Niderviller faïence factory in Lorraine on the edge of eastern France.  This example, from c. 1760, was made in at the Bow Porcelain Factory, London.  Both the Bow and Niderviller pieces were possibly copied from an original pot which was made at the Italian Doccia porcelain factory near Florence.

The Bow factory use a porcelain making technique which strengthened the material with bone ash, making it suitable for tea- and table-wares.  Bow  was primarily concerned with utilitarian wares,  but every so often, they’d create a special luxury piece like this one.

The pot is baluster shaped and it is modeled with a Rococo scroll and shell motif.  The piece has been painted with exotic birds; with scrolls picked out in puce, blue and gilding.

Her Majesty's Furniture: A Table 'En éventail,' 1560-1600

Center Table
Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau
1560-1600
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Designed as a Center Table, for the middle of a large room or foyer, this piece  was known for its fan-shaped supports as a table "en éventail" (fan). Tables like this have long been associated with Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau who published various, important designs for similar tables from 1550.

Du Cerceau, however, was not the inventor of this style, since the type of form appeared in Italy from the 1520s, and were probably inspired by then-antique marble tables.

This table has endured substantial restoration before its acquisition by the V&A in 1860.  Dating the piece, because of this, has proven difficult, but it most likely heralds from between 1560 and 1600. 

The Home Beautiful: The Lily Pond Table, c. 1913

Table
Omega Workshops
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This oblong table of painted pine wood with curved ends is supported on slightly tapered legs which are united by square-end stretchers and one flat central stretcher. The table is special because of the top which is painted in oils with a lily-pond design consisting of an assortment of abstract forms in polychrome on a black ground.  This painted panel is outlined by a red border within an outer border of green. The framework is painted in a matching hue of olive green and the legs have chamfers at the angles which are painted a dusty red.

Made between 1913-1919 in England, this table is the work of the designer Roger Fry (1866-1934) and the painter Duncan Grant (1885-1978) for the famed Omega Workshops.