Copper watering can
Copper watering can
Name/Title
Copper watering canEntry/Object ID
2025.1.1002Description
A two gallon copper watering can, with curved spout, side and top handles, (c. 1900).Context
The first depiction of something resembling a watering can appears in an ancient Egyptian painting and first use of the term 'watering can' was in 1662 by the cottage gardener Lord Timothy George of Cornwall. In ancient times clay pots with holes were used rather inefficiently as the water poured too quickly out of the pot and flooded the plants too quickly. Some of these pots were found intact in the ruins of Herculaneum following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. These developed into thumb pots, which still had the holes at the bottom but the thumb was placed over a smaller hole at the top, which when removed would allow the water to fall. During the 16th - mid-17th century this design developed into a jug with a spout that had a rose over the end. Thomas Hill, the Tudor gardening writer, records a more sophisticated watering can "the body wholly of copper, having a big belly and narrow neck, a strong handle of the same metal workmanly fastened to the belly and head to carry the pot if need be to place in the garden: but for a more easiness and quickness in carriage of the pot upright and full, is another strong ring or handle fastened artly to the lips of the pot…[which] serveth to sprinkle forth the water by the long pipe full of little holes on the head….” Preference for a watering can or a watering pot continued until the mid 19th century when Henry Haws patented a metal can with a rose on the end of a long spout and two handles to steady the weight - the design that we still prefer today.Cataloged By
Felix LamCategory
Country & Rural activities, Horticultural Sundries