Casgliadau Arlein

Tea canister, cylindrical, 'scratch blue' incised decoration and inscriptions, rouletted beading on neck, shoulder and foot.

This is an important, extremely rare and previously unknown early documentary piece made at the Swansea Potworks, established in 1764. Documentary early products of the pottery are extremely scarce and are generally identified thanks to incised inscriptions. This is only the third recorded object predating the 1780s that specifically refers to the ‘Swansea Pot Works’ in its inscription. The others are a stoneware and a creamware tea canister both of different shape but with similar inscriptions and dated 18 July 1775 and 8 October 1778 respectively.

The importance of the inscription is that it rules out the possibility of the object being made elsewhere (such as Bovey Tracey in Devon) for the south Wales market, making this object one of the earliest benchmarks by which to judge other products of the Swansea pottery in its first years.

The earliest products of the Swansea Potworks seem to reflect the presence at the pottery of the Ridgway family of Staffordshire potters, and fall into two main categories:

(1) Salt-glazed stoneware decorated with the ‘scratch blue’ technique (incised lines coloured with cobalt pigment). There are five recorded examples, dated between 1768 and 1778, four in the Swansea Museum collection (a flask, a jug and two tea canisters), one at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery (a bowl).

(2) Creamware tea canisters also decorated with the ‘scratch blue’ technique. Fewer than ten examples of this type are recorded, dated between 1771 and 1778. The shapes of these canisters vary, but they follow the same general pattern as this example, being cylindrical with moulded beading around the foot and shoulder. The National Museum collection has an example of this type (a larger and slightly different shape) inscribed `alcy Davies / August ye 21st 1774' (NMW A 30363), and a later example of similar shape dated 1783 and with painted not incised decoration (NMW A 30365). Although confidently attributed to Swansea, neither of these has the same documentary status as this canister.