Spode Spill Vase, well painted with a bouquet of flowers within a gilt cartouche on a powder blue ground.
England c. 1810
2½" diameter x 4" tall
Price: $125
Please note: There is a very small chip on the inside rim, visible in the photo.
Ever wonder why these little vases are called "spill" vases? They almost always date before the middle of the 19th century. The Oxford English Dictionary defines spill as a “thin slip of wood, a folded or twisted piece of paper, used for lighting a candle, pipe, etc." Matches did not come into regular use until the middle of the 19th c and book matches did not appear until the 1890's. Before then spill was used to move a flame from one place to another and nearly every room in the house would have had a vase of spill.
Ask a question about this item.
Back to Ceramics, English.
| 
