The earliest bowls tend to be around 4 inches (10.1 cm)and are of rounded plain form with a circular foot with most having a detachable lid. Sometimes in the early to mid eighteenth century they are incorporated as part of a set of tea caddies.
The covered sugar bowl was normal until the 1760s when goblet shaped baskets generally with swing handles often with fine piercing start to appear.They are often fitted with glass liners. By the 1780’s the sugar basket normally on an oval or shaped foot ,again with a swing handle is the preeminent shape.During this time actual sugar bowls (except in Ireland)are fairly uncommon with the basket being more fashionable.
By the later 1790s the large two handle sugar bowl is the preferred shape and by the early 1800s supersedes the basket.These bowls are always larger than people expect as sugar came in a ‘sugar loaf’ which was planted into the bowl ( no finely processed supermarket sugar!).By the middle nineteenth century there are huge varieties made.
At William Walter Antiques we have a fine selection of sugar bowls and baskets from the early eighteenth century right up to the modern era.
