Pitcher (container)

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Minoan terracotta ewers, about 2200 BCE

A pitcher is a container with a spout used for pouring its contents. Pitch was traditionally used to help caulk the seams of wooden sailing vessels. It was heated, then put into a container with a very long spout and poured over rope fibers which had first been "paid" (pressed) into the gap. The word pitcher is said to derive from this long spouted container used to pour hot pitch. Several phrases in popular use today date to this maritime usage. The term "the devil to pay" is said to derive from this usage. The full phrase was "the devil to pay, and no pitch hot". The "devil" in question being the most outward plank, the most difficult one to caulk.

An ewer is a pitcher, often decorated, with a base, oval body, and flaring spout. A famous example is the America's Cup trophy.

[edit] See also

Bridge spouted vessel

[edit] Gallery

Ewer from Iran, dated 1180-1210CE. Repousse brass inlaid with silver and bitumen, NY Metropolitan Museum	America's cup, 1848	Eleanor Roosevelt's silver water pitcher	A ewer of Rubino glass
Baptismal ewer and basin (1711, Spanish master)