Heading :  Lorna Bailey for L J B Ceramics - Fantasia Cottage Pattern Conical Sugar Sifter
Date : Early 21st Century
Period : Modern Britain
Marks : hand painted 'Lorna Bailey', 'Fantasia Cottage'
Origin : Burslem, England
Colour : Hand painted in bold, polychrome colours on a white background.
Pattern : Fantasia Cottage

Features: Conical shape; pierced with six holes towards the tip
Condition : Excellent; no chips, cracks or flakes; no stopper to the fill aperture on the base - though a trimmed cork would suffice very well
Restoration : none
Dimensions : 12.8 cm tall x 7.5 cm diameter base
Weight : 149 grams

Notes : put to its proper use as a sugar sifter this piece is splendidly evocative of 'sugar loaves' as used in the 18th century alongside nips and tongs to provide the gentlefolk of the time with their sugar rush; note the Sugar Loaf folly of Mad Jack Fuller near Brightling, Sussex, made in the shape of these very things. Sugar loaves were a necessity before the advent of any way to control humidity in the home, as ground sugar - if damp - would simply clump together and preclude the use of any sort of sifter or shaker.