Metropolitan ware jug

Metropolitan slipware rounded jug inscribed 'BREAK ME NOT I PRAY IN/YOUR HASTE FOR I TO NON WILL/GIVE DISTAST 1645' (meaning ‘Break me not, I pray, in your haste, for I to none will give distaste’). Metropolitan slipware vessels were made in Harlow, Essex and were so-called because London quickly became their prime market. They are decorated with a trailed white slip underneath a clear glaze. Slip is a type of fine, liquid clay which could be piped through a nozzle to ‘draw’ patterns onto pots. Cow horns or other similar devices were used to pipe the slip.