Advanced Search 
Bread plate
Designed by: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (English, 1812–1852)
Made at: Minton & Co. (English, active 1793–present)
Made at: Minton & Co. (English, active 1793–present)
English (Stoke-on-Trent)
about 1849
Medium/Technique
Colored stoneware
Dimensions
Overall (Diameter): 33 cm (13 in.)
Credit Line
Samuel Putnam Avery Fund
Accession Number1989.208
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
Pugin was the leading inspiration behind the Gothic Revival in England, and this plate is an icon of that style. His collaboration with the Minton factory resulted in the revival of the encaustic, or inlaid, clay technique practiced in the medieval period. Inscribed in Gothic lettering on this bread plate is "Waste Not Want Not," a timely reference to the hunger and poverty sweeping Britain in the 1840s.
DescriptionRound, flat disj made of beige stoneware, decorated in the gothic style. Encaustic with slip decoration of a circular design incorporating wheat sheaves, formalized leaf scrolls, and geometric motifs in red-brown clay inlay and blue. The motto "Waste Not Want Not" around the rim.
Marks
430 impressed.
InscriptionsThe inscription on the rim in pseudo-Gothic lettering reads: "Waste Not Want Not."
ProvenanceBy 1989, with Kurland-Zabar, New York, NY; 1989, sold by Kurland-Zabar to the MFA. (Accession date: June 21, 1989)