Punch Bowl

This finely decorated bowl is a veritable emblem of the interconnected 18th century: it is linked to Liverpool merchants, enslaved Africans, and Asian potters. Designed as a container for spirited punch made from imported commodities like sugar, citrus, and spice, the bowl was presented to the captain of the Molly, the trading vessel depicted in its interior. Like many ships that sailed from Liverpool, the Molly was engaged in the triangle trade, in which “success” came when the captain exchanged enslaved Africans for Caribbean sugar at a favorable rate. The decoration on the bowl’s exterior combines two iconographic systems. Images of the Greek gods of commerce (Mercury) and the sea (Neptune) blend into a highly detailed chinoiserie landscape. The roof of the large building in this scene is oddly cropped; perhaps the artist was copying an image in a print and misjudged the dimensions of the bowl.