February 14, 2008

A Clue

For those of you who are just now coming to this page, we are running a contest for a piece of my pottery for the first to guess the function of these pots.

Here is another one of those mysterious pots from the North of Germany.
This piece has the mysterious inscription trailed in slip:
N O 1 7 3 8

from Schleswig-Holstein

Height : 33.5 cm., Width 37 cm.

Take notice of the small openings on either side of the handles just as in the previous piece.
Although we can't see it in the picture the "back" and the "bottom" are open per the authors description. If no one guesses by midnight E.S.T tonight(2/14/08) we will have to come up with another contest next week. Good Luck!


  1. You hide your sauerkraut behind it.
    This one is much more fancy than the previous one.

  2. I've got it!
    Hood cover for the very first VW beetles.

  3. You're just not taking this seriously are you Ron :). That colander's really tasty, I might have to make some of those tomorrow.

    Is it some kind of fire cover?

  4. We have a winner!

    Doug, YOU GUESSED IT! I'll be sending a piece of pottery to you after I've picked something nice out.
    Congratulations! And Ron I will commend you on your diligent efforts.

    That was fun.

  5. What!? Doug won!? I said oven cover and stoke hole cover, those qualify as things that would cover a fire!
    Darn. Okay, I'll be ready for the next contest.
    That was lots of fun Michael. I've got to get out of the house more!

  6. Ok Ok. I see your point, Ron, but I guess I was going by the book, literally. It's called a fire cover and its function was to cover the embers at night to reserve them so that it would be easier to get a fire going in the morning. It would nestle in the back of the fireplace. Well I will run this controversy by my wife who is always fair in these situations. I will be back with her judgment asap. What a blast. I'll try and get the specifics from the text and maybe that will clarify matters, maybe not, HA!

  7. Oh I'm just carrying on. Doug is the true winner. I showed them both to Sarah and she guessed fireplace cover, very first guess. Wow.
    Later, Ron

  8. Yes, yes, yes!! Lap of honour, bad luck Ron, yes, yes, yes!

  9. Michael, it'll cost you a fortune to send a pot to the UK - ha ha, can't wait!

  10. I have your address from your website and I'll put it in mail Monday. I'll have to send a tiny pot or something really light. But it's a small price to pay for the fun.

  11. Thank you very much, I have a tiny house so a tiny pot's great!