If These Pots Could Talk: Collecting 2,000 Years of British Household Pottery

A cup for holding caudle (""A drink made from thin gruel, spiced, sweetened, and mixed with ale or wine""), a chafing dish, and even clobbering (""a crude application of heavy overglaze"") are potential sources of speech in If These Pots Could Talk: Collecting 2,000 Years of British Household Pottery. London-born Ivor No l Hume (Here Lies Virginia), former chief archeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, presents 648 illustrations (560 in color) of everything from a black Roman-era poppyhead beaker to a thin-walled, brown salt-glazed stoneware ""gorge"" from the early 18th century and beyond. Organized by use rather than chronology, the 16 chapters take readers from ""Broomsticks and Beer Bottles"" to ""Mentioning the Unmentionables,"" reconstructing the objects' uses and social contexts along the way. ( Dec.)