Description
The ancient tradition of wassailing is most closely associated with South Wales, Somerset, and Herefordshire in England. Farmers and villagers used these remarkable earthenware bowls during New Year celebrations, when people traveled from farm to farm singing traditional songs. The bowls were filled with an alcoholic drink used to toast good fortune and good health, and in return, the hosts would offer cakes and wine as gestures of goodwill.
This magnificent, large slipware pottery bowl is glazed in yellow over red sgraffito and comes with an exceptionally rare, richly decorated cover. The bowl features 18 plain strap handles adorned with zigzags and circles, which would originally have been festooned with ribbons during celebrations. Inscribed beneath the handles are the initials and pottery name “WIM Clay Pits 1833.”
The spectacular domed cover depicts a figure seated at a round table surrounded by chickens and two foxes carrying a mouse in their mouths. Its inscription reads: “William James Tonyrevil Jany 12th 1832.” William James was likely the donor—and perhaps custodian—of the bowl, gifting it to the village of Tonyrevil. A reference in the South Wales News on April 30, 1892, notes that William Williams, a potter at the Claypits Works in Ewenny, was known for making wassail bowls priced at one guinea.
This wassail bowl is among the rarest surviving pieces from the early 19th-century Ewenny Pottery and stands as an extraordinary example of Welsh folk art.