bubby pot, Josiah II and John Wedgwood and Thomas Byerley, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, c1810

The design of the bubby pot was created by Dr Hugh Smith, a physician, in around 1770. Originally made from pewter it went on to be made from various other materials. Wedgwood & Sons Limited manufactured ceramic bubby pots throughout the Georgian period. 

Before the invention of dried milk in the mid 1800s, this would have been filled with liquid food, the spout covered in cloth, and children would suck on the end like a modern baby bottle. It would have been used by wet nurses and nursery maids to introduce infants to solid foods. 

This object was audited and researched as part of the Heritage Fund Data Hunters and Story Gatherers project.