Utensils and dishes used to serve seafood often featured pictures and symbols of marine life, mythological sea creatures, and gods. Among the most elaborate examples ever made in Great Britain is this large cockle pot. The top of its lid features a hand-sculpted fi gure of Neptune, the Greek god of the sea. Many of the shells that decorate its base and sides were molded from real shells. Made in the Leeds Factory around 1780 it was used to serve a seafood stew often called Cockle Soup or Potpourri.

Background image taken from Martin Lister, Historiae Conchyliorum, Oxford, 1770.

Recipe taken from John Nott
Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary;
or The Accomplish’d Housewife’s
Companion, London, 1723.

Plate, ca. 1745
London, England
Earthenware
(tin-glazed)
Chipstone Foundation 1964.34

Serving Spoon and Fork, ca. 1883
Gorham Manufacturing Co.
(Providence, Rhode Island, begun 1831)
Silver, silver-gilt, and gold wire
Gift of Warren Gilson M1995.515.1,.2