Chinoiserie porringer

A tin-glazed earthenware (delftware) porringer with flat, lobed handles, each pierced with one hole in the centre. The vessel is decorated in cobalt oxide (blue): the handles cross-hatched and the bowl decorated internally with Ming-style panels on the sides and a bird of prey, profile to left, in the centre. There is some restoration. Although vessels of this general form are not uncommon in the Netherlands, they are usually decorated with the virgin and child. The hawk motif is highly unusual. Porringers were used for frumenty (a dish of hulled wheat boiled in milk sweetened with sugar), pottage and other pulpy 'spoon-meats'.