Object: Posset Pots

When I hear of a combination of milk and beer or wine, I have to tell you, I think of a hangover remedy -- something to soothe the stomach with a little dash of hair of the dog to ease a pounding head.

Posset pots were drinking vessels usually made from tin-glazed earthenware, sometimes made from silver or glass, to drink the milk and alcohol mixture from. They had two handles and a spout and were very popular in England and Holland from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

Bristol Delftware Posset Pot, circa 1690; Sotheby’s NYC January 20, 2006; Realized Price: $12,000


Sometimes an egg and spices like cinnamon were added. Sometimes a sweet sherry was used instead of ale or wine. The alcohol would cause the mixture to curdle and separate and the drinker would sip the concoction through the spout.

Dutch Delft Polychrome Posset Pot 18th Century (painted in imitation of Batavian ware); Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, Netherlands, December 4, 2006; Estimate : €800 - €1,200


A little protein post a bout of too much drinking the night before is always recommended. However, I would opt out of drinking this recipe. I am covering my lips with one finger right now as my stomach turns a bit.


George II Delftware Posset Pot circa 1730-40; Christies’ London January 20, 2009; Realized: £1,625


Posset was a popular drink at celebrations such as weddings or Christmas feasts and the posset pot was passed from guest to guest each one sipping from the spout. I wouldn’t have liked to be the last one to sip this mixture. Some people tend to leave a bit of warm, thick backwash.

Posset Pot, ca. 1710 Bristol, England, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in KC.


A really good posset was said to have three different layers: the upper having foam; the middle a smooth custard; and the bottom the alcohol. The custard portion was eaten with a spoon and the leftover liquid mixture sipped through the spout. At weddings a wedding ring was sometimes thrown into the posset pot. It was thought that the person who fished it out would be the next to get married.

It was also commonly used for those in bed sick to slowly sip this milk and alcohol mixture from one of these pots. In some rural portions of England, this was practiced even up until the mid twentieth century.

English Delftware White Posset Pot, curca 1700; Sotheby’s NYC, October 20, 2003; Estimated Price: $6,000 - $8,000; failed to sell.


Some seventeenth-century recipes called for bread crumbs, eighteen yokes and three-quarters pound of sugar. (My bottom is spreading from just reading about it.) This recipe sounds similar to a bread pudding I make -- but it has a whiskey sauce mixed with butter and sugar on top. There is no curdling. There is no communal sipping sludge from the bottom. And everyone has their own portion from their own plate nibbling from their own fork.

I must not judge. Times have changed. And I am sure an eighteenth-century English woman would have thought eating a rice cake that tastes similar to Styrofoam was unappealing.

English Delftware Polychrome Posset Pot and cover, Circa 1770; Sotheby’s NYC; October 6, 2006; Estimated Price: $18,000 - $22,000; Realized Price: $66,000 !

Something about these spouts makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Anyone else?

Top image: Posset pot, Netherlands, Late 17th or early 18th century ; Victoria and Albert Museum .

Designer: Piet Boon

“Don’t build anything that you cannot design brilliantly; don’t design anything you can’t build. Believe in your own handwriting.” -- Piet Boon

Dutch furniture and interior designer, Piet Boon, is involved in every aspect of the design process. This is his design philosophy which functions as the catalyst and infiltrates all of his creations. He believes design must be well thought out. This is one reason why I love his work. As a trained designer, I have worked for a few designers who didn’t think the process through from concept to completion, and thereafter: What is the intension? What is the problem to be solved? Will the object work within the space? Will the materials hold up to the purpose?

Design does not simply mean “fashionable”, “chic” or “up-to-date”. Design is to be utilized. It is about the study of people and their environments. We exist in our environments; we need and use the objects within them. Design is about the relationship between people, their objects, and the space in which exist.

Piet Boon began his career as a building contractor and in 1982 established Piet Boon Studio just outside of Amsterdam. He teams with his wife, Karin, to run a design studio -- they have a team of architects and designers. Some of his latest projects include Delano Hotel in Las Vegas, and a hotel on St Barth.

He uses natural materials, sturdy design and durable products. He believes design must be timeless and last. I have a tendency to study designer’s furniture creations. Closely. Some of my favorites:

'Heit' Swivel Chair

'Kaat' Tables

But one design that has really caught my eye is his 'Hot Kroon' chandelier.

Creepy and unsettling.

But utterly fantastic!

Available in a 5-arm or 18-arm chandelier, black or white, the fixtures are covered with polyurethane. Each one is hand created and each one is different.



An action or a movement caught in a moment and suspended in time.

Rendering of Hof Van Saksen Restaurant

Hof Van Saksen Restaurant with the 'Hot Kroon' chandeliers.

Visit his site HERE. If you are drawn to his work, you will be memorized.


Top image title page of his most recent book from Amazon, the art work, I believe is by Rachel Lee Hovnanian, portrait photo from Nilson Beds, all remaining photos from his website, (two interiors of a NYC residence on 5th Ave).

Chinese Export Porcelain

Ceramic items make me nervous. I always fear bumping into one, knocking it over and watching it smash into a million bits onto the floor. I have a tendency to carry with me a large tote (currently a saucy crimson patent leather number), the width about half my height. But that doesn’t mean I can’t gently put down my tote, and appreciate the beauty of ceramic pieces while I stand very still holding my hands behind my back.

One type of ceramic ware I find of interest is Chinese export porcelain. It has an interesting history and in this market, a mid-range object over two centuries old can be purchased for a very reasonable amount.

The interesting part is that back then Westerners were doing things very similar to what we do today: take a foreign design and adapt it to our needs. And Chinese export porcelain was just that.

Way back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Chinese porcelain had only an occasional presence in Europe. Exotic and ornamental, it was given as a gift, or accrued as part of a collection by a very important aristocrat. Its influence was intermittent. In 1498, commercial trade with China was facilitated by the Portuguese by opening the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope.

Sotheby's (London) May 14, 2008 offered this old, old plate decorated with the Portuguese royal coats of arms and the monogram IHS surrounded by a crown of thorns. Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos in The Porcelain Route, Lisbon, 1999, suggests a date of 1520-1540.

But by the year 1517, routes had improved and Chinese ceramics were carried off from their ports by large Portuguese ships. Europeans began to take a fancy for these items, along with spices silks and lacquer. In the following century, the Dutch monopolized the trade with China and everyone back at home went crazy for the porcelain “oriental” wares. Chinese forms were not that useful to Europeans. They ate different foods and had different dining practices. The Dutch began requesting European forms such as spittoons, mustard and coffee pots and narrow necked jugs – items they used daily. They would have the Chinese paint their “oriental” designs on these more usable forms.

A Pair of Chinese Export Coffee Pots for the Dutch market, circa 1735-40. Each one illustrates a Dutchman holding a walking stick. I love the serpent spout and scroll handle. Christie's (London) November 17, 1986, yes that long ago and sold for $40,000.

Chinese Export armorial platter circa 1765 with the arms of Hynam. Sotheby's (NYC), January 23, 2009.


By the eighteenth century, they were requesting to have their own family crests painted on the wares. Armorials were a more simple design, but very personal and entire sets of elaborate dinner ware were created. Furthermore, during this century the English, with their superior naval military, controlled the trade. Almost everyone had some – from the middle to the upper classes. They even made their way over to America.

By the last quarter of the century, things began to change as the production of creamware in England grew stronger with a return to quieter tones and therefore hastened the decline of the export trade.



Three blue and white mugs with landscape decoration from the eighteenth century purchased for the realized price of $540. Rago Arts and Auction Center, Lambertville, New Jersey. March 27, 2009.


Export porcelain from the eighteenth century is still readily available at modest sums – blue and white plates or a mug with a decorative dragon-shaped handle can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars.


Christie’s (London) sold this Coffee Pot with Cover on November 21, 2007. The tall tapering form has a branch handle and bird head spout. It went for about $1,000.




On April 25, 2008 Sotheby's (NYC) saw this go for the realized price of $12,500. It is painted on one side with 'The Judgment of Paris'. Supposedly this was one of the most popular European subjects to be painted on Chinese porcelain during the 1740s. This coffee pot is a lot fancier then the one above it.

With this recession coupled with the antique market the only Chinese Export items holding value are figures, animal figurines, tourines and very important armorials.
Pair of Horses. I love these.... a little hoakey, but not the price tag... Christie's (NYC) January 21, 2009.

Animal tureens made a spectacular splash to table services and were very popular in wealthy households during the mid-eighteenth century. Large tureens were made in the form of chickens, boars and ox heads. Smaller vegetable and sauce tureens made in the form of quails, crabs, chickens and ducks.

Christie's (London) July 6, 2005 for the huge realized price of.... $421,818.

Many items are coming up for auction and truly affordable. I decided to feature some of the more, ahem, expensive ones....

Reconsidering the Kast

For years armoire cabinets have served us well. They were a place to organize, store and conceal clothing, bedding, towels and more recently, clunky televisions and stereos. Since we have upgraded to slick flat-screened TVs, iPods and enamored with the minimal look, we have found new ways to keep excess out of sight; we simply don’t want these massive pieces of furniture anymore.

The origin of a large storage piece goes well back in time. In the Netherlands, the Dutch created a similar piece known as the Kast or Kasten. By the seventeenth century, the Kast had become the most important piece of furniture in the house. It was a very functional and very impressive piece of furniture. It signified material success and a well-ordered household – two things the Dutch were known for. Filled with linens, needlework, porcelains, silver and pewter, the kast was kept locked, with the woman of the house in charge of the key.

Pieter de Hooch, Interior with a Woman Besides a Linen Chest

Typically located in the center hallway of a household, the Kast was huge, as much as eight feet in height and six feet wide. Because they were so large, they were often sold rather than moved. The kast was usually constructed in four sections. The upper section had two cupboard doors which opened to reveal shelves. That section was surmounted by a projecting, removable cornice. This upper section rested on a lower case piece which sometimes had a second set of cupboard doors or sometimes merely a single long drawer, or even two short drawers side-by-side for additional storage. The entire piece was raised on a fourth section of molding over bun feet. Often given to a bride before her wedding, a wealthy burgher would purchase one as a symbol of his financial success. It was elaborately adorned, paneled, carved, ebonized or inlaid with exotic veneers.

Cornelis de Man, Interior of a Townhouse

Dutch women had more rights than many other women throughout the Continent. Foreign travelers noted with horror that wives had the right to haul their husbands before magistrates to charge them with wife beating or to find them guilty of entering into a house of ill repute. Husbands could be publicly admonished or barred from taking communion. Women could even get their marriages annulled if a husband returned from sea with a venereal disease. Widows could inherit and administer their husband’s property, bequeath it or transfer it as they liked. Women were the keepers of the house and had the right to toss their husbands out the door for excessive drinking.

Cornelis de Man, Family Group at Dinner Table, 1658

In exchange for all these rights, women were encumbered with strict household duties. They cared for their home, husbands, children; they looked after the cooking, cleaning and outdoor gardens. A clean, well-ordered home was held in high esteem. It was considered free from wanton chaos which was apt to seep into unkempt households. The presence of the kast helped to keep this order.

The seventeenth century was the Golden Age of the Netherlands. Wealth flooded into port cities. The merchant class became prosperous. It was a period of high achievement in the arts and sciences. The Dutch burgher lived a much more affluent life than did any other merchants elsewhere.

The Dutch loved comfort and expensive items. Foreign travelers also noted the love and care that was lavished upon the Dutch home. Many Dutch burghers possessed considerable disposable incomes, and they thought nothing of spending a lot of money and effort to make their home a comfortable retreat.

In America the Kast was the most recognizable symbol of Dutch heritage, particularly in New York and New Jersey from the mid-seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Their designs similar to their European counterparts, although the methods of construction were not as elaborate or sophisticated. Kasts were still very important household items.

Decoration could be painted ornamented with symbols associated with good fortune and fertility. Door panels painted with flowers and fruit, geometric forms often in grisaille which simulated carving on more elaborate and expensive furniture.

As industrialization gained speed in America, the cultural and practical functions of kast diminished. The kast gradually ceased to be made. Preserving and storing textiles became less important in the nineteenth-century household. Factories began producing inexpensive machine-made linens and cottons. Built-in cupboards and closets were designed in houses. The old and outdated Dutch cultural symbols that once decorated the kast no longer seemed relevant to a dynamic young nation. Inevitably with these changes, the kast faded away.