by:
Noel-Hume, Ivor

Publisher:
University Press of New England
Published:October 2001
ISBN:158465161X
Format:Hardcover
Pages:472

Description: From Publishers Weekly
A cup for holding caudle ("A drink made from thin gruel, spiced, sweetened, and mixed with ale or wine"), a chafing dish, and even clobbering ("a crude application of heavy overglaze") are potential sources of speech in If These Pots Could Talk: Collecting 2,000 Years of British Household Pottery. London-born Ivor Noand#137;l Hume (Here Lies Virginia), former chief archeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, presents 648 illustrations (560 in color) of everything from a black Roman-era poppyhead beaker to a thin-walled, brown salt-glazed stoneware "gorge" from the early 18th century and beyond. Organized by use rather than chronology, the 16 chapters take readers from "Broomsticks and Beer Bottles" to "Mentioning the Unmentionables," reconstructing the objects' uses and social contexts along the way.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal


Written by British-born archaeologist Hume, who collected the pieces featured in this book with his late wife over a period of several decades, this volume contains a wealth of information on British pottery from earliest times to the present. Chapter titles range from "Khnum and Ptah, and the Clay of Life" to "Beyond the Gas Lamps' Glare" to "A Mug's Game," revealing both the tone and the scope of this book. Points discussed in the text are illustrated by references to specific pieces in the... read more

Book Description
Lively prose and wonderful color photographs portray a veteran's passion for British household pottery.