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FYI
Spittoons

The popularity of chewing tobacco at the turn of the century was reflected in the manufacture and sale of ceramic spittoons by local potteries.  Spittoons were containers for tobacco juice and wads. They were also used by cigar smokers, as ashtrays were a later product. Ceramic spittoons were heavy and seldom tipped…a bonus for housewives.

Yellowware and Rockingham spittoons were among the first items made by East Liverpool potters.  The museum possesses a yellowware spittoon by James Bennett, our earliest commercial potter.  (Bennett Pottery: 1840-1844).  Jabez Vodrey wrote in his diary in 1849, that “two spittoons were dipped.”  Throughout his diary he refers to spittoon design including leaf, gazelle, and handled spittoons. 

The elaborately decorated spittoons seen above are often, erroneously, referred to as ladies’ spittoons. During the Victorian era, highly decorated ware, even utilitarian ware used by men, was part of the decor of the parlor.