A WORCESTER WINE-FUNNEL

Produced in three sizes, of which this is the largest, this utilitarian object is a rare survivor. Polychrome wine-funnels had a brief production period from about 1754 to 1756 and an underglaze blue example was introduced briefly during 1768-67. A near-identical wine-funnel is discussed in Simon Spero, Lund's Bristol and Early Worcester Porcelain 1750-58, the A.J. Smith Collection, London, 2005, nos. 25 and 110 and also Dinah Reynolds, Worcester Porcelain in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, pl. 4, no. 308.