Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Bread plate

Bread plate

(English, 1812–1852)
(English, active 1793–present)
about 1849
Medium/TechniqueColored stoneware
DimensionsOverall (Diameter): 33 cm (13 in.)
Credit LineSamuel Putnam Avery Fund
Accession number1989.208
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsCeramics
Collections
Description
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.
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)