Elizabethan earthenware money pot

Description

Money pot, c. 1550-1650. Ceramic, southern borderware; white fabric with green mottled glaze; flat base, bellied, terminating in knob at apex with large ridge around it; narrow vertical slit in shoulder for coins; hole broken into base; chip to glaze on top of knob., Earthenware money boxes, like this one, were formed in the cheapest and quickest way: as small pots thrown on the potter's wheel and closed at the top, sometimes with a small finial (decorative knob). The slot was simply cut with a knife.This money box is typical of English pottery, which was practical and less decorative than pottery imported from France, Germany and The Netherlands. The type takes its name from the area where it was made, on the borders of Hampshire and Surrey. Rich deposits of white clay were found there. Few money boxes survive because they had to be broken to get the money out. No pottery money box that has survived intact can have been used for its original purpose. The tiny slot (designed for thin, stamped, low-denomination copper coins such as pennies, halfpennies and farthings) would not allow coins to be extracted without breaking the pot open. In the 16th and 17th centuries these humble objects were probably owned by some of the poorest members of society.