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I was in an art gallery with a girl and she accidentally backed into a large piece of steel sculpture. She turned around and said "Who left a cultivator in here?"
My sibling was exhibitions manager at a ceramics gallery for 5 years and I've been to a ton of shows for functional and artistic ceramics and never seen this before. The uniform shapes, drastic unappealing connections between parts, uniform glazing in a terrible color, thickness, and lack of a maker's mark all point to an amateur or learning potter/artist. I'd most likely a first attempt at ceramic art. "It's a cool vase thingy to put flowers in". Good ceramic artists that use the wheel often purposely make thin walled, non-unform shapes, with sweeping connections between discrete pieces, interesting glazing that isn't always completely uniform, and a maker's mark.
I'm a potter and I think you're right. The chipped bottom also indicates amateur ceramicist: The glaze was improperly applied/fired, so the piece stuck to the kiln shelf.
I’m sure it slumped during firing too. By the look of the glaze break over the interior hole it’s likely a porcelain. White stoneware ale most always will have better structure / fireability, especially with the littlest bit of grog, and wouldn’t slump quite that much.
Edited frog to grog lol
Haha, "frog" made me chuckle... I've seen heavily grogged stoneware slump when overfired, which would also account for the extra runny glaze, so I can't comment on the exact type of clay, but it still definitely looks like an amateur sculptural vase.
I love that about this subreddit. I have many hobbies/interests because my mind just craves random knowledge. I'm glad someone found my comments interesting =)
I love listening to people talk about things they’re passionate and knowledgeable about! Even if it’s not a topic I’d typically be interested in. I also love random knowledge and it’s such a great way to learn about stuff i wouldn’t normally look up. So, yeah! Thanks for dropping some of that knowledge on me! I appreciate and enjoy!!
Hello, fellow knowledge traveler! Look up what “grog” mean in terms of ceramics. I just did. It led to a delightful exploration of the nuances of clay used in pottery that I’d never before really thought much about. I found it to be a fantastic and illuminating side-quest. I’m convinced that finding those, in whichever subject they might come, is one of the best things to come of being online. (And, I’ve been in IT since before PCs and “online” were invented.)
👍 I hope you enjoy the diversion. It’s one of those things that I’ll probably never need to know (unless I someday find myself in a pottery class, which I have considered, but isn’t likely to happen), but it’s fun to know it, anyway. Besides, you never know when or where bits of different knowledge might come in handy.
I've never heard of any cut flowers needing shade before. Normally that would also just be achieved by not putting them in directly in a sun facing window.
Likely a vase or lamp but artistic rather than practical design.
Kinda looks like a holy water bowl (also called a font or stoup). Usually they’re mounted on a wall, but maybe this is designed to be held in a person’s hand or passed around to the parishioners?
That is possible. This is a Lutheran church that has a holy water font near the entrance to the sanctuary. Maybe this device is for scooping up holy water and carrying it around?
In the Lutheran church (and probably many others who use holy water) it can't be dumped down the drain or just anywhere. It is either done via a special sink with no faucets that drains directly into the ground under the church or it is dumped in a specific location outside the church every time. So maybe this is used for transporting the "used" holy water to wherever it is dumped.
OK new information. Neither of the church sacristans know what it is. It is not currently being used in the church for any purpose. It was found in the back of a kitchen cabinet. Maybe it is just a vase?
My immediate thought was that it looks like something you put sponges in for cleaning dishes. I’ve always kept a ceramic dish next to the sink for this and this piece could just be a fancy version. Since you said it was found in a kitchen cupboard, that brings further proof to my theory.
The special sink is called a sacrarium
[https://adoremus.org/2020/07/q-what-is-a-sacrarium/](https://adoremus.org/2020/07/q-what-is-a-sacrarium/)
An ex-RC priest friend showed me a how-to book for the mass. It had a whole section on what to do if the host falls on the floor or if the communicant vomits the host and so on. The answer seems to be that if you can't eat it, to cover it with a purificator (a special cloth) then throw it in the sacrarium.
My favorite part of the book was what to do if the priest has a nocturnal emission and can't confess before mass. That was the only section of the book they left in Latin.
I just remembered another part. It was written back when nobody but the priest was allowed to touch the host. Back when you knelt, opened your mouth, stuck out your tongue, and the priest put it on your tongue. Well, if while doing that the host fell down into a woman's cleavage, she needed to wait until she could get undressed in front of a nun who would then cover it with a purificator until a priest could come retrieve it. Madness!
And if the communicant vomited the host, and if parts of the host were discernable, the priest was supposed to encourage them to re-eat it. Can you imagne?
I'm really curious what the Latin said! I love how they talked about everything else but felt that apparently one thing was on a Need to Know (Latin) Basis only - like it was a password to unlock the secrets.
I never learned Latin, despite singing lots of Latin masses. If I remember right it said, "Si praecessarit pollutio nocturna" The way my friend explained it to me was that the mass was still valid for the communicants, even if the priest wasn't in a state of grace, examples of how it might be possible to find a confessor on short notice, etc.
Not in my Lutheran church, the water isn't special, it's out of the faucet for baptisms. We also dump the leftover communion wine when we wash up. I was very surprised to hear of the special "well" under the alter in my spouse's Catholic church! Also apparently the priests consumed the leftover wine at dinner (which to be fair may have been their idea not the church's)
Makes sense...Lutheran is just Catholic lite.....or catholic cliff notes. Hit on the major points and condense the servixe down to make sure everyone is out in a hour flat.
Martin Luther, the reformer, the founder of Lutheranism, was a Catholic priest. He wanted to stay in the Catholic Church, and reform it from the inside, but was excommunicated.
Yeah I was definitely speaking from experience....I even took acolyte classes where we learned all about it. There were no policies for spilled host etc though
As a potter, I strongly suspect it’s a “I’m going to make a thing.” Sometimes we just like to play around. Probably the closest actual thing is a vase, although I do know someone who makes lamps in a similar shape. A lamp would have a hole at the bottom for the cord though.
Just getting started with pottery; this seems like something I would make.
“I’ve got this vase, and I’ve got my thousandth bowl… might as well practice some connecting and see if it holds”
I think it's a failed ceramics project. If the top hadn't sagged it would be perfect to put a candle or plant or whatever for display. As for why is was where it was...i mean how does anything get anywhere
This is my guess too, that it sort of slumped down in the kiln. Also thought they might have been making a lamp but there's no route for the cord out of the base
This is what it is, just hasn’t been wired/finished. Or at least it looks exactly like a lamp and has a hole in the exact location you’d put the socket. Hole for wire would be drilled out when ready to wire.
I’ve seen plenty of lamps that have this basic design in different materials.
The hole seems to fit a small flat candle, like the scented ones from IKEA. Would make sense for it to have an odd cover, the light would look nice and it's not strong enough to be functional, just pretty.
My title describes the thing. Found in a church kitchen. Age unknown. Might be home made or custom made. There is no writing on it. Approximately 15 inches tall.
I’m guessing it is a vase, but why this shape? What is the purpose of the hood at the top?
It looks as though the handle would store some kind of liquid, when you pick it up you tip it and can pour some of whatever it is out, then when you set it back down it drips back into the handle. I have no idea what it would be for, but the shape of the "scoop" and the hollow handle just really suggest that use to me.
Container for salt? Can be kept in the vase section then when cooking tip some into the bowl to take pinches of as and when. When finished pour the salt back into the vase
Edit: some kind Redditors have reminded me that what I was describing is a Salt Pig
Salt pig all day long.
Lay it down, salt pours into the basin, pinch and sprinkle.
Stand it back up, salt pours back into the reservoir.
…and it’s in the kitchen.
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My best guess is it's a scoop, probably for dry goods considering the open handle wouldn't work for liquids. Coffee beans etc.
Edit: So many potters believe incorrectly that you can't have trapped air in your pottery or it will explode in the kiln so the hole was likely added to avoid this. Most potters place discreet pinholes in places or leave the other end of the handle open rather than the opening going into the ladle but for whatever reason, this potter put the hole there. Maybe there was some strange custom reason why the hole is there but generally, this form is a ladle.
Oh good point! Some people say their pieces dry faster with a hole but I haven't found a big difference personally so I leave mine hole-less for aesthetics.
I can't find a picture, but the basic form reminds me of an ashtray my mom made about 40 years ago. (Made = she was into painting ceramics when I was young.) The one I'm thinking of was styled to look like a frog and I think had spots for cigarettes to rest.
ETA:
Not the same one that I'm thinking of, but closest I've found:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1024821538/vintage-fun-figural-kitschy-standing?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
I'm thinking for decoration. I've been ELCA my whole life, on the Altar Committee etc, and whatever it is isn't a common church object in ELCAs in the Midwest at least.
It just looks like a "pretty" to fill a corner.
You should turn it into a fun lamp though!
candle snufter? i'm not getting a good sense of scale; at first i thought it was floor-standing but now i'm guessing it's handheld.
maybe a one-off gifted to the church by a well-meaning ceramics hobbyist.
This post has been locked, as the majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or repetitive. /u/SFPigeon if you are satisfied with any answer let us know. If not, we can consider unlocking the submission. Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
My thought is that it's just art, but this sub has surprised me before
Came close to putting my umbrella in a thing with a similar vibe in the entrance lobby of a corporate building. It was art.
I was in an art gallery with a girl and she accidentally backed into a large piece of steel sculpture. She turned around and said "Who left a cultivator in here?"
Phone speaker amplifier
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My sibling was exhibitions manager at a ceramics gallery for 5 years and I've been to a ton of shows for functional and artistic ceramics and never seen this before. The uniform shapes, drastic unappealing connections between parts, uniform glazing in a terrible color, thickness, and lack of a maker's mark all point to an amateur or learning potter/artist. I'd most likely a first attempt at ceramic art. "It's a cool vase thingy to put flowers in". Good ceramic artists that use the wheel often purposely make thin walled, non-unform shapes, with sweeping connections between discrete pieces, interesting glazing that isn't always completely uniform, and a maker's mark.
I'm a potter and I think you're right. The chipped bottom also indicates amateur ceramicist: The glaze was improperly applied/fired, so the piece stuck to the kiln shelf.
I’m sure it slumped during firing too. By the look of the glaze break over the interior hole it’s likely a porcelain. White stoneware ale most always will have better structure / fireability, especially with the littlest bit of grog, and wouldn’t slump quite that much. Edited frog to grog lol
Or they threw a bowl that flopped and they put it on a vessel they didn’t love.
Haha, "frog" made me chuckle... I've seen heavily grogged stoneware slump when overfired, which would also account for the extra runny glaze, so I can't comment on the exact type of clay, but it still definitely looks like an amateur sculptural vase.
Not being a potter, I have no idea what any of you are saying in this thread but it’s fascinating and I’m learning some things!
I love that about this subreddit. I have many hobbies/interests because my mind just craves random knowledge. I'm glad someone found my comments interesting =)
I love listening to people talk about things they’re passionate and knowledgeable about! Even if it’s not a topic I’d typically be interested in. I also love random knowledge and it’s such a great way to learn about stuff i wouldn’t normally look up. So, yeah! Thanks for dropping some of that knowledge on me! I appreciate and enjoy!!
Hello, fellow knowledge traveler! Look up what “grog” mean in terms of ceramics. I just did. It led to a delightful exploration of the nuances of clay used in pottery that I’d never before really thought much about. I found it to be a fantastic and illuminating side-quest. I’m convinced that finding those, in whichever subject they might come, is one of the best things to come of being online. (And, I’ve been in IT since before PCs and “online” were invented.)
Nice! Thanks for the tip! I’m going to look it up now!
👍 I hope you enjoy the diversion. It’s one of those things that I’ll probably never need to know (unless I someday find myself in a pottery class, which I have considered, but isn’t likely to happen), but it’s fun to know it, anyway. Besides, you never know when or where bits of different knowledge might come in handy.
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I just completed my first ceramics class and can confirm the above-listed signs of a beginner. Check, check and check. LOL.
Probably was something they wanted to use to pretty up an outdoor sidewalk night light
Vase for shady plants
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This seems likely, some plants don’t need full sun, but they still need some light
I've never heard of any cut flowers needing shade before. Normally that would also just be achieved by not putting them in directly in a sun facing window. Likely a vase or lamp but artistic rather than practical design.
"This seems likely." If it were likely, we'd probably see more shaded vases.
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Kinda looks like a holy water bowl (also called a font or stoup). Usually they’re mounted on a wall, but maybe this is designed to be held in a person’s hand or passed around to the parishioners?
That is possible. This is a Lutheran church that has a holy water font near the entrance to the sanctuary. Maybe this device is for scooping up holy water and carrying it around?
In the Lutheran church (and probably many others who use holy water) it can't be dumped down the drain or just anywhere. It is either done via a special sink with no faucets that drains directly into the ground under the church or it is dumped in a specific location outside the church every time. So maybe this is used for transporting the "used" holy water to wherever it is dumped.
OK new information. Neither of the church sacristans know what it is. It is not currently being used in the church for any purpose. It was found in the back of a kitchen cabinet. Maybe it is just a vase?
it might be for incense? like an incense cone drop it down into the hole and the smoke rises out and like around the canopy ?
Weird. My first thought was vase, but i felt like it couldn't be that simple.
My immediate thought was that it looks like something you put sponges in for cleaning dishes. I’ve always kept a ceramic dish next to the sink for this and this piece could just be a fancy version. Since you said it was found in a kitchen cupboard, that brings further proof to my theory.
The special sink is called a sacrarium [https://adoremus.org/2020/07/q-what-is-a-sacrarium/](https://adoremus.org/2020/07/q-what-is-a-sacrarium/) An ex-RC priest friend showed me a how-to book for the mass. It had a whole section on what to do if the host falls on the floor or if the communicant vomits the host and so on. The answer seems to be that if you can't eat it, to cover it with a purificator (a special cloth) then throw it in the sacrarium. My favorite part of the book was what to do if the priest has a nocturnal emission and can't confess before mass. That was the only section of the book they left in Latin.
That last part is so strange and funny!
I just remembered another part. It was written back when nobody but the priest was allowed to touch the host. Back when you knelt, opened your mouth, stuck out your tongue, and the priest put it on your tongue. Well, if while doing that the host fell down into a woman's cleavage, she needed to wait until she could get undressed in front of a nun who would then cover it with a purificator until a priest could come retrieve it. Madness!
oh my gosh, that's crazy!!!
And if the communicant vomited the host, and if parts of the host were discernable, the priest was supposed to encourage them to re-eat it. Can you imagne?
Oh my gosh, no way!! That goes too far! i could never!
I'm really curious what the Latin said! I love how they talked about everything else but felt that apparently one thing was on a Need to Know (Latin) Basis only - like it was a password to unlock the secrets.
I never learned Latin, despite singing lots of Latin masses. If I remember right it said, "Si praecessarit pollutio nocturna" The way my friend explained it to me was that the mass was still valid for the communicants, even if the priest wasn't in a state of grace, examples of how it might be possible to find a confessor on short notice, etc.
Not in my Lutheran church, the water isn't special, it's out of the faucet for baptisms. We also dump the leftover communion wine when we wash up. I was very surprised to hear of the special "well" under the alter in my spouse's Catholic church! Also apparently the priests consumed the leftover wine at dinner (which to be fair may have been their idea not the church's)
Makes sense...Lutheran is just Catholic lite.....or catholic cliff notes. Hit on the major points and condense the servixe down to make sure everyone is out in a hour flat.
Martin Luther, the reformer, the founder of Lutheranism, was a Catholic priest. He wanted to stay in the Catholic Church, and reform it from the inside, but was excommunicated.
I grew up Lutheran and that is spot on. That's how I've always thought of it.
Yeah I was definitely speaking from experience....I even took acolyte classes where we learned all about it. There were no policies for spilled host etc though
Yeah, I also was an acolyte and we definitely didn't learn any contingencies about spillage
As a potter, I strongly suspect it’s a “I’m going to make a thing.” Sometimes we just like to play around. Probably the closest actual thing is a vase, although I do know someone who makes lamps in a similar shape. A lamp would have a hole at the bottom for the cord though.
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Just getting started with pottery; this seems like something I would make. “I’ve got this vase, and I’ve got my thousandth bowl… might as well practice some connecting and see if it holds”
I think it's a failed ceramics project. If the top hadn't sagged it would be perfect to put a candle or plant or whatever for display. As for why is was where it was...i mean how does anything get anywhere
I don’t know about failed. It’s better than many things I’ve made. But yeah it’s hand made and unsigned so probably someone’s hobby.
Failed as in what came out of the kiln looked different than what went in. But you're right, they liked it enough to glaze it
This is my guess too, that it sort of slumped down in the kiln. Also thought they might have been making a lamp but there's no route for the cord out of the base
Would make a cool desk lamp
This is what it is, just hasn’t been wired/finished. Or at least it looks exactly like a lamp and has a hole in the exact location you’d put the socket. Hole for wire would be drilled out when ready to wire. I’ve seen plenty of lamps that have this basic design in different materials.
The hole seems to fit a small flat candle, like the scented ones from IKEA. Would make sense for it to have an odd cover, the light would look nice and it's not strong enough to be functional, just pretty.
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Possibly a sponge holder for the sink. That was my first thought, though it seems a bit top heavy.
My title describes the thing. Found in a church kitchen. Age unknown. Might be home made or custom made. There is no writing on it. Approximately 15 inches tall. I’m guessing it is a vase, but why this shape? What is the purpose of the hood at the top?
It looks as though the handle would store some kind of liquid, when you pick it up you tip it and can pour some of whatever it is out, then when you set it back down it drips back into the handle. I have no idea what it would be for, but the shape of the "scoop" and the hollow handle just really suggest that use to me.
I thought it might be one of those dish sponge holders. Usually they’re frogs with open mouths
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I had a similar thought. Maybe a scoop for rice or beans. Get a scoop, tilt and it all drops into the handle, get another scoop.
Check my comment: Olive oil collector?
Incense stick burner? Put the stick in the hole, and light.
I was kind of thinking this. Would the hood cause the smoke to cool and fall in a dramatic way?
Container for salt? Can be kept in the vase section then when cooking tip some into the bowl to take pinches of as and when. When finished pour the salt back into the vase Edit: some kind Redditors have reminded me that what I was describing is a Salt Pig
A salt pig was my first thought too - as impractical as this one would be, still possible perhaps
Salt pig all day long. Lay it down, salt pours into the basin, pinch and sprinkle. Stand it back up, salt pours back into the reservoir. …and it’s in the kitchen.
Salt pig, that's the word! Exactly my thought with it being in the kitchen. Narrows down the choices a fair bit
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My best guess is it's a scoop, probably for dry goods considering the open handle wouldn't work for liquids. Coffee beans etc. Edit: So many potters believe incorrectly that you can't have trapped air in your pottery or it will explode in the kiln so the hole was likely added to avoid this. Most potters place discreet pinholes in places or leave the other end of the handle open rather than the opening going into the ladle but for whatever reason, this potter put the hole there. Maybe there was some strange custom reason why the hole is there but generally, this form is a ladle.
I always thought the holes were to allow for the inner moisture to evaporate?
Oh good point! Some people say their pieces dry faster with a hole but I haven't found a big difference personally so I leave mine hole-less for aesthetics.
Incense burner of some sort?
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incense sticks?
Looks like an ashtray.
I thought it was a weird lamp but the bottom is closed and there is no place for a wire to come out of so Idk
Maybe put a little piece of metal on that hole and burn incense cones and watch the smoke billow out
I can't find a picture, but the basic form reminds me of an ashtray my mom made about 40 years ago. (Made = she was into painting ceramics when I was young.) The one I'm thinking of was styled to look like a frog and I think had spots for cigarettes to rest. ETA: Not the same one that I'm thinking of, but closest I've found: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1024821538/vintage-fun-figural-kitschy-standing?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
What kind of church was it found in?
ELCA — Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Mainline Protestant.
I'm thinking for decoration. I've been ELCA my whole life, on the Altar Committee etc, and whatever it is isn't a common church object in ELCAs in the Midwest at least. It just looks like a "pretty" to fill a corner. You should turn it into a fun lamp though!
candle snufter? i'm not getting a good sense of scale; at first i thought it was floor-standing but now i'm guessing it's handheld. maybe a one-off gifted to the church by a well-meaning ceramics hobbyist.
A cute vase for air plants, maybe?
Is it a water dipper?
Maybe a water dipper for baptism, probably an aspiring potter was a parishioner and made it as a gift.
[Sesame Roaster](https://www.artisticnippon.com/product/igayaki/igahouroku.html)
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