Miss Bignells: An Important Creamware Coffee Pot and Cover, Circa 1770

Miss Bignells: An Important Creamware Coffee Pot and Cover, Circa 1770
Of large size and plain baluster shape with a spreading foot and milled rims, the double rope-twist handle with floret and leaf terminals, scrolling leaves at the base of the spout, painted in black, red, green and yellow with three fine ladies standing in a garden, one gesturing to a birdcage and to the bird in its open door, the other ladies holding a nosegay and a singing bird, titled in black above 'MISS BIGNELLS', the reverse with a grand three-storey house with outbuildings and domestic fowl running free in the front, the cover with a flower spray and a floret finial, 10 in. (26.4cm) high
Footnotes:
Provenance
Phillips, 11 June 1986, lot 143, and illustrated on the catalogue cover

The decoration on this coffee pot has hidden meanings, suggesting coffee may not have been the only beverage that was served by the fine ladies at Miss Bignell's establishment.

The birdcage was a popular symbol of Marriage and it also represented Liberty or freedom from marriage. A birdcage could be a symbol of a woman's chastity, which was intact if the bird was still in the cage, but if the door was open, then the bird had flown. A birdcage therefore represented the social, domestic, and legal constraints of marriage. However a bird released from confinement embodied Liberty, the carefree, lack of constraints and freedom of the single life.

One of the fine ladies places her hand on the open birdcage, perhaps read by the 18th century viewer as an act of invitation. Another lady holds a released bird, able to fly free. On the reverse of the coffee pot, many different birds have gathered in front of the house, without any barriers or constraints.
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