Images(10)

Punch Pot

Date1775 (dated)

Maker John Pennington

OriginEngland, Liverpool

MediumSoft-paste porcelain

DimensionsOH: 9" (with cover); H: 6 15/16" (without cover); OL: 11 3/16" (handle to spout); OD: 6 5/8" (widest part of the body).

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, Elise H. Wright in memory of John C. Austin

Object number2025-76,A&B

DescriptionPunch pot: cylindrical slightly inward tapering footring supports large globular body that rises to a short cylindrical neck; slightly s-shaped spout opposite ear-shaped handle; the pot topped by a slightly domed cover with deep bezel and overhanging rim and a central inverted tear-shaped knop and an adjacent steam hole. Decorated in underglaze blue: one side with the Eerie Landscape pattern depicting stylized rocks in a tree-filled landscape and a tall four-story building and rooftop terrace with a person in the foreground; the other side painted in underglaze blue with “Mary · Hargraves / Higham 1775” within a c-scroll and diamond bordered oval cartouche. The lid painted ensuite with two landscape scenes opposite each other.Label TextWilliamsburg, Virginia’s archaeological record reveals punch and tea wares from John Pennington’s Liverpool porcelain factory; and numerous Chesapeake newspapers heralded the availability of “Liverpool china” to Virginia and Maryland consumers throughout the last quarter of the 18th century.

With its 1775 inscribed date, this rare presentation punch pot is an important documentary object of Pennington’s porcelain factory. The identity of the object’s original owner, Mary Hargraves, remains a mystery, but several Mary Hargraves are listed in the 1770s parish records for the east Lancashire village of Higham, England.Inscription(s)Painted on one side with "Mary · Hargraves / Higham 1775".ProvenanceMade in 1775 for one of the several Mary Hargraves (Higham, Lancashire, England); 2002 [Simon Spero, London, England]; 2002 -2025, purchase by Maurice and Lyn Hillis (Chester, England); 2025 [Bonhams, London, England]; 2025, purchased [Rob Hunter, Yorktown, Virginia]. July, 2025 - present, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Virginia).