{"product_id":"antique-trailed-slip-lidded-crock-in-green-and-cream-c-1900-1940","title":"Antique Trailed Slip Lidded Crock in Green and Cream, c. 1900–1940","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA low lidded crock in cream and deep green, decorated all over with fine trailed threads of slip laid on in a loose random web.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe body is a straight sided cylinder that steps out near the foot into a broad flared base, which gives a small vessel an unexpectedly architectural profile. The rim is flanged to take the lid, and the whole of the outside and the inside carries the same treatment: a clear cream ground with thin green lines trailed across it in long looping runs that cross, double back and trail off wherever the hand lifted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe interior is where the decoration is densest. Seen from above it reads almost as a drawing, dozens of green threads laid over a warm ivory ground, pooling slightly where the glaze ran thicker.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lid reverses the scheme and that is the cleverest thing about the piece. It is a deep bottle green with the same web trailed over it in white, domed, radially ribbed around the underside edge, and finished with a plain cylindrical knob. Set on the pale body it reads as a lid from a different object, which is exactly the effect the maker wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe glaze is glossy and crazed throughout in a fine, tight, even net, with the craze lines darkened where decades of handling have worked dirt into them. The foot ring is left unglazed and shows a soft buff earthenware body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrailed slip is one of the oldest decorative techniques in pottery and one of the hardest to fake convincingly, because the line records the speed of the hand that made it. Here the threads vary in thickness along their length, they overlap without hesitation, and they run off the edge rather than stopping neatly, which is what a trailer held over a turning pot does and what a printed or stencilled imitation never does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reversed colourway between body and lid is a deliberate design decision rather than a mismatch. Both carry the same web in the same hand at the same scale, one green on cream and one white on green, and the lid seats correctly on the flange. They were made for each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating rests on the fabric rather than on any mark. The body is a soft buff earthenware, not stoneware and not porcelain, visible where the foot ring is left unglazed. The glaze is a glossy lead type crazed in a fine even net across every surface, and the craze lines are darkened throughout with worked in dirt. Crazing of that density and that degree of staining is decades of use, not years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo maker's mark, impressed number or backstamp is present. The base is glazed to a plain cream with only the unglazed foot ring showing. An absence of that kind sets an outer limit rather than a starting point, so the range below is drawn wide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComplete lidded vessels of this age are worth pausing over for a dull reason: the lid is almost always the thing that went. Finding one still with its own cover, correctly seated and decorated to match, is the uncommon part.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1900–1940. Dated from fabric and surface rather than documentation. A soft buff earthenware body visible at the unglazed foot ring, a glossy glaze crazed in a fine even net across every surface, and craze lines darkened throughout with worked in dirt, which is decades of use. The decoration is hand trailed slip, recorded in the varying thickness and the run off at the edges. No mark, number or backstamp is present, and that absence gives an outer limit only\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnattributed. No mark found\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLow lidded crock. Straight sided body stepping out to a flared foot, flanged rim, domed lid radially ribbed beneath the edge with a cylindrical knob\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGlazed earthenware, buff body\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand trailed slip in a loose random web. Green threads on a cream ground over the body inside and out, reversed to white threads on a deep green ground on the lid\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 7 in. diameter by 3.5 in. high at the body, 5 in. high overall with the lid\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good. Both parts present and correct, lid seating properly on the flange. No chips, cracks or restoration found to body or lid. Fine even crazing throughout with age darkening in the craze lines, original to the glaze and not damage. Light wear to the unglazed foot ring. Offered uncleaned\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe two tone scheme is the whole argument. A pale crock with a bottle green lid reads as a considered pairing rather than a single object, and it will carry a shelf on its own without needing anything grouped around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe trailed web rewards close looking in a way most decorated pottery does not. From a few feet it is texture. From arm's length it is a drawing made in about fifteen seconds by somebody who had done it ten thousand times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also usable. Sugar, salt, garlic, tea, coffee beans, hair pins, cotton wool, small change by a door. The flanged rim means the lid stays put rather than sliding off, and at this diameter a hand goes in easily.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGreen and cream is one of the easiest pairs in the house. It sits against oak, pine, painted cabinetry, marble and old plaster, and it belongs equally in a farmhouse kitchen, a cottage bathroom or a modern counter that wants one warm old thing on it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67558833913961,"sku":"VE-1769","price":289.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_26a0889b-bdf9-4f83-bcd9-cccbd54148e5.jpg?v=1790594896","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/antique-trailed-slip-lidded-crock-in-green-and-cream-c-1900-1940","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}