"A Midnight Modern Conversation"

Lawrence Harrison

Summary

Deep circular punch bowl with straight sloping sides tapering to flat well and prominent footring. Decorated with a pale bluish white tin-glaze, painted inside bowl in cobalt blue with tavern scene after Hogarth, entitled 'A MIDNIGHT MODERN CONVERSATION' in scroll set beneath the scene. Scene comprises eleven men in eighteenth century dress, drinking and smoking around a long table on which is placed a large punch bowl. In the drunken chaos, chairs are overturned and a man flails on the ground in centre foreground. Behind the table to left a man stands with glass raised in one hand. Panelled wall in the background with longcase clock to right. Scene bordered with rococo scallop shell and foliage motifs, repeated in larger border around rim interior. Exterior sides painted in blue with stag-hunting scene set in English landscape, the stag in manganese purple, set upon by hounds and surrounded on both sides by hounds and figures on horseback. Rolling hills in the background, scattered with trees and buildings. Bowl rim edged in red. Underside painted in blue with inscription 'LAWRENCE HAR(RISO)N / 1748' within blue circle.

Display Label

Earthenware punch bowl 1748 Lawrence Harrison, Liverpool Punch was made from an alcoholic drink (typically rum or brandy) flavoured with sugar, citrus fruit and spices such as nutmeg. It emerged from the mid-1600s and reached the peak of popularity in the mid eighteenth century. Punch was typically drunk by men's clubs and associations. Punch parties were notorious for drunkenness and anti-social behaviour - reflected in Hogarth's satirical print A Modern Midnight Conversation which is reproduced on this punch bowl. Thomas Tylston Greg bequest 1923.261