Sauce boat 1749 - 1760

Curator: What strikes me immediately about this earthenware sauce boat is how utterly frivolous it feels, in the best way! So delicate, with these absurdly ornate floral handles... like a porcelain fantasy. Editor: Frivolous, perhaps, but within a very specific historical framework. This "Sauce boat," crafted by Paul Antoine Hannong around 1749 to 1760, speaks volumes about Rococo aesthetics and the opulence of the French court. Think about the era, right before the revolution… Curator: Of course, it's beautiful, the colours soft, almost faded—though that might just be age talking! The painting, so intricate—the floral motifs dancing across the surface…It just feels like it would be such a delight to use! That’s the problem right? I suppose you would not serve just any sauce in there, but rather the most lavish cream sauce… with truffles... Editor: True. These kinds of objects played a key role in aristocratic culture. Culinary rituals, particularly around dining, were performative displays of wealth and power. The floral decoration wasn't just pretty—it referenced cultivated gardens and controlled nature, metaphors for societal control and refinement. Even the medium itself, ceramic and earthenware, was becoming increasingly valuable, linking the object to growing trade routes. Curator: And it’s fascinating that something designed for such specific use, and for such a specific audience, could end up here, centuries later, and still spark…I don’t know…joy? Even recognizing the baggage, it's just wonderfully excessive. Editor: Excess, yes, but an excess that encoded so many social signals. By analyzing the sauce boat's shape, its decoration, and its material, we gain a tangible connection to the power structures of 18th-century France. Curator: It’s funny to think that maybe someday our Tupperware and coffee mugs will have art historians and cultural commentators making sense of the Anthropocene era by what vessels held. Editor: Exactly. And, in many ways, aren't we already doing that through our obsessive archiving of food and design trends? Curator: A sobering thought. I'll never look at my water bottle the same way again! Editor: This seemingly simple "Sauce boat" is an opportunity to reflect on our present while engaging with the past. What stories will our objects tell?