Brown-Glazed Red Clay Small Cooking Pot

I've had this a very long time, but if memory serves, I got it from a Boston "North Shore" dealer in the late 70's or early 80's for use as a decorative item. I've never used it for cooking. But I've always wondered what it was made for and how old.

Only 4 inches tall, about 5 inches wide (across the widest point) with a 3 3/4 inch opening at the top. The under 3 inch handle was separately made and attached to the side before firing. It's hollow at the outer end, but there is no opening to the inside where it joins the body. Appears to have been made for heating liquids because of the pouring lip. It came with a lid made of yellow clay that is glazed (outside surface only) in a much darker brown and doesn't fit properly, so I suspect it was a marriage.

All of it (inside and out, except the bottom) has a shiny reddish-brown glaze that was tough to photograph to get true color on the screen. You'll see some glaze glare in some of the pictures, but that's the best I could do.

The underside shows the red clay and is unglazed. You can also see the clay color at one spot on the exterior side where the pot may have touched another piece in the kiln. Unmarked.

Any thoughts about when it would have been made and how used?

 

You know I have no knowledge, but I'm throwing my first thought out there!
Bean pot?
But I can't find anything similar in searches.

 

Kind of small for the usual recipe of said beans (I have a couple of them and they hold about 2 qts.) but thanks for the suggestion.

 

No idea how old it is -- could be 19th, could be 20th -- but it looks like it had a lid at one time. A pourer of sorts -- maybe for melting butter or making and serving sauces.

 

Hi Wendy! Yes, I agree, should have a lid (although as I mentioned ^ the lid that came with it appears not to be the original.

I welcome all impressions.

I just wish someone would say that they had seen one like it before.

 

Well duh me. I should read more attentively...

 

With the new redware pottery question posted this afternoon, I'm bumping this up from page 2 in case responders to that one haven't seen my query.

 

Try searching redware pipkin.

 

Thanks, anund. That's a term I've never heard before.

Any idea where and when would be likely?

 

Dutch, German, English... maybe, not sure.

 

I found some! Most larger and with feet (some even newly made) but at least there was one very much like mine - with, as I suspected would be the case, a different kind of lid - domed as opposed to flat. I've always believed that the lid didn't really go with it.

Thank you so much for the right word!!

 

thanks anunderver...I learned a new word.