Antique French White Glazed Pot

Period: 19th or early 20th century

Size: 3 inches tall, 4⅜ inches wide

A small white-glazed pot with straight cylindrical sides, a flared collar rim, and a low ridge at the foot. The tin glaze is an opaque milk white running over a warm reddish-buff clay, covering the pot inside and out, and a fine crazing network spreads across the whole surface. Glaze losses along the rim edge and around the foot expose the clay underneath, and that line of terracotta against the white is much of what makes it. The interior is fully glazed. Wear consistent with age and use, sold as found.

Historical Context

The straight-sided body with a flared collar is the standard French form for a small lidded pot, made for pommade, ointment, mustard, or confiture depending on who ordered it. Tin glaze was the way to get a true opaque white on ordinary earthenware, and the same glaze covers everything from apothecary jars to kitchen ware. The crazing comes from the glaze and the clay body expanding at different rates over many years.

Styling Ideas

The white reads clean against wood and against the browns of stoneware, so it does useful work in a group of darker pots. Small enough for a bathroom counter holding cotton or brushes, or a desk, or the table with salt in it.