Punch Pot, 1745-1755

Well-to-do 18th-century households used punch pots to transfer punch from a warming kettle to a punch bowl during large gatherings--or if the party was more intimate, hosts could serve directly from the pot. Pottery in China designed this vessel to appeal to fashionable Western audiences--the shape imitates earlier western-made teapots, and the landscape decoration appealed to contemporary tastes.