What were spill vases used for?

Spills were thin slips of wood or twisted paper. You lit one from the fire and carried the flame to a candle or a pipe, and the vase held a bundle of them ready on the chimneypiece. The holder is the hollow tube or tree stump behind the modelled group. That is why so many of these pieces have an animal in front and an open stump rising at the back.

How old are Staffordshire vases usually?

Twenty-three listings carry a clean year, and those years run from 1850 to 1920. Thirteen of them are put in the 1860s, with single examples given to the 1870s and the 1920s. Fourteen more are labelled Victorian and thirteen say only "19th Century". A couple of titles claim around 1820 while the dated field records them as 19th Century, so the field is often vaguer than the title.

Are they usually sold in pairs?

Pairs are a third of the archive: 18 of 55 listings. Paired spaniels, cows and calves, horses and foals, foxes and lions all appear. One lot of three matching deer spill vases is the only set larger than two.

Which animals appear most often?

Sheep and spaniels are the everyday subjects, and they sit at the lower end of the range. Ram and ewe groups, cows with calves, horses with foals, and swans with cygnets recur as well. The wider repertoire in the samples takes in a poodle, a mastiff, greyhounds, a fox, a lion, deer and a single zebra.

Do all Staffordshire vases have figures on them?

No. Roughly a fifth of the listings are conventional vases rather than figure groups: twin-handled porcelaneous vases, chintz pairs, a pot pourri vase and cover, an urn, a baluster vase and ironstone china vases. Those non-figural pieces include the highest-priced listings in the archive, while plain pottery spill vases sit at the cheaper end.

Is there a maker's name on these vases?

A scan of the descriptions turned up no factory that can be presented as typical of the category, so no single name stands behind Staffordshire vases as a group. Where a factory or decorator is named in a title, that listing tends to sit in the upper part of the range. Unattributed sheep and spaniel groups sit at the bottom.

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Antique Staffordshire Vases

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A small earthenware ornament from the Staffordshire potteries, usually a modelled animal or figure standing before a hollow stump that held spills for carrying a flame to a candle or pipe.

Pair of Antique English Victorian Staffordshire Pottery "Scots Harvesters" Spill Vases

19th century

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Pair of Antique English Victorian Staffordshire Pottery "Scots Harvesters" Spill Vases

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Pair of Antique English Victorian Staffordshire Pottery "Scots Harvesters" Spill Vases

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