Heading :  Lorna Bailey for Old Ellgreave Pottery - Stoke on Trent Pattern Conical Sugar Sifter
Date : Late 20th Century
Period : Modern Britain
Marks : printed Old Ellgreave Pottery mark; hand painted 'Lorna Bailey', 'STOKE-ON-TRENT' and letter 'A''
Origin : Burslem, England
Colour : Hand painted in bold, polychrome colours on a white background.
Pattern : Stoke-on Trent

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 : 17.7 cm tall x 9.8 cm diameter base
Weight : 283 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.