Ornamental Drinking Vessel

A drinking vessel from Fiji in the South Pacific, presented to the Guille-Allès Museum by a Miss Hartwell in 1887. An inscription in the records reads: “With Daisy’s Love, Easter 1887”.

The vessel is hollow ceramic, made waterproof by rubbing pine resin into the warm clay just after firing. Similar examples exist in various museum collections around the world, including the British Museum and the Smithsonian. Examples from the 19th Century are varied with eccentric shapes: some inspired by sea creatures, others by fruits and vegetables, and many with these distinctive knobbled decorations on the surface. This particular vessel may have been inspired by native sea creatures.