In a typical home there are likely to be more objects made of ceramics – earthenware, stoneware and porcelain – than any other single category of material. Most will be 1900s and 2000s, a fair proportion will be late Victorian and perhaps a few pieces will be earlier.Pie Funnels, Vents & Whistles
- Time To Read: approximately 6 minutes 13 seconds for 1120 words
Sing a song of sixpence,a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds,
baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened
the birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
to set before the king.
The king was in his counting house,
counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
and pecked off her nose.
There was such a commotion,
that little Jenny wren
Flew down into the garden,
and put it back again.
It is said that this children´s nursery rhyme inspired Clarice Cliff to make the blackbird pie funnels.
The first Toby Jug was made in the early to mid 1700s, and featured a jovial, seated, male figure, with a mug in his hand and a tricorn hat which made a pouring spout. He was dressed in clothes of the time; a long coat with low pockets, waistcoat, cravat, knee breeches and buckled shoes. No one really knows why he was named ‘Toby’ although it is possible he was named after Sir Toby Belch a character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Or maybe it was after a song popular in 1761, around the time the jug was first produced in a traditional, brown salt glaze version. The song ‘Brown Jug’ featured ‘Toby Fillpot’.