Sources page probability recreations

Pp. 13-14: The tomb of Belus. This was encountered by Xerxes, c 480, and was a vessel which maintained its level when liquid was poured into it.

Pp. 18-19: The ever-full fountain. This was described by Hero and is a vessel which maintains its level when water is drawn from it.

Pp. 95-96: The Bundar boat. This is a device which has intermittent flow which was used by Indian magicians, apparently already in use when Westerners got to India.

John Timbs. Things Not Generally Known, Familiarly Explained. A Book for Old and Young (spine says First Series and a note by a bookdealer on the flyleaf says 2 vol.). Kent & Co., London, (1857?), 8th ed., 1859. Hydrostatic wonders, p. 111, mentions some classical examples as: "The magic cup of Tantalus, which he could never drink, though the beverage rose to his lips; the fountain in the island of Andros, which discharged wine for seven days, and water during the rest of the year; the fountain of oile which burnt out to welcome the return of Augustus from the Sicilian war; the empty urns which, at the annual feast of Bacchus, filled themselves with wine, to the astonishment of the assembled strangers; the glass tomb of Belus, which, after being emptied by Xerxes, would never again be filled; the weeping statues of the ancients; and the weeping virgin of modern times, whose tears were uncourteously stopped by Peter the Great when he discovered the trick; and the perpetual lamps of the magic temples, -- were all the obvious effects of hydrostatical pressure. -- North British Review, No. 5."

Banu Musa = Banū Mūsā bin Shākir (Sons of Moses), but largely the work of Ahmad = Abu-l-Hasa [the H should have an underdot] Ahmad [the h should have an underdot] ibn Mūsa. Kitāb al-Hiyal [the H should have an underdot]. c870. Translated and annotated by Donald R. Hill as: The Book of Ingenious Devices; Reidel, 1979. Describes 103 devices, most of which are trick vessels, as well as fountains, etc. E.g. Model 1: "We wish to explain how a beaker is made in which a quantity of wine is poured, and if [a measure] of wine or water is added to it all its contents are discharged." This is a Tantalus cup. Model 4: "We wish to make a jar with an open outlet: if water is poured into it nothing issues from the outlet, and if pouring is stopped the water issues from the outlet, and if pouring is resumed [discharge] ceases again, and if pouring is stopped the water discharges, and so on continuously." Models 12 - 15 have finger holes under the handle allowing the pourer to produce various effects.

Sandfield says the earliest Chinese puzzle vessels are in the Xian Museum and are dated to either the Song (951-960) or Northen Song (960-1127 or 1279). (My Chinese chronology has Song being 960-1279, with Northern Song being 960-1127 and Southern Song being 1127-1279.) Sandfield says they visited the Yaozhou Kiln Museum which apparently has been making Celadon Magic Teapots ever since that time! [See his Annotated Bibliography items 6 & 7.]

Al-Jazari = Badī‘al-Zamān Abū al-‘Izz Isma‘il ibn al-Razzāz al-Jazarī. Kitāb fī ‘rifat al-hiyal (the h should have an underdot) al-handasiyya. c1204. Translated and annotated by: Donald R. Hill as: The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices; Reidel, Dordrecht, 1974. Introduction, pp. 3 12, and Conclusion, pp. 279-280, include comparisons with other works. Not much of interest to us, except for the following.

Category II, chapter 5, pp. 110-114, 221, 256-257, 272. "It is a pitcher for wine which is used in carousals, into which water and wines of [different] colours are poured; it has a valve from which each colour is drawn separately."

Category III, chapter 1, pp. 127-129, 259, 272. "A pitcher from which hot water, cold water and mixed water is poured."

In the Historical Museum at Cologne is the 'goblet of Albertus Magnus', which has a false bottom which allowed him to introduce antimony and make the drink emetic. He lived 1193-1280, so this might date from c1250. Described and illustrated in: Edwin A. Dawes; The Great Illusionists; Chartwell Books, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1979, p. 21.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, item 1921-202, presently in Room 4, in the case devoted to Decorative Techniques, item 14. Late 13C, different than the Exeter jug below. Described, with photo and photo of a cut-away model, in Crossley, below. The same item is illustrated by a drawing in the following entry.

Jeremy Haslam. Medieval Pottery in Britain. Shire, Aylesbury, (1978); 2nd ed., 1984. On pp. 19, under: Some regional types; Oxford region; Thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, he mentions, among characteristic items of the Oxford region in the late 13C, "'puzzle jugs' decorated with applied scales, strips of red-firing clay and stags' heads (13, 10)". Fig. 13 on p. 47, Oxford, Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Vessels, item 10, is "Puzzle-jug, glazed green, with app. scales, red strips, face masks and deer head over spout." The drawing is by the author from the above mentioned item in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

The Royal Albert Museum, Queen Street, Exeter, EX4 3RX, has a notable example of a puzzle jug, c1300, from SW France or the Saintonge region of west France, described as the finest piece of imported medieval pottery in England. A postcard of it is available from the Museum. Crossley, below, says it is late 13C from the Saintonge and was excavated in Exeter in 1899. He gives a cross-sectional drawing and cites a 1988 excavation report. In fact, the puzzle aspect is quite simple -- the upper level is connected to the base via the handle which leaves room for three levels of decoration, showing some apparently unclothed bishops inside, then some ladies leaning out of windows and then some musicians serenading outside! It is depicted and described in: John Allan & Simon Timbs; Treasures of Ancient Devon; Devon Books (Devon County Council), Tiverton, 1996, pp. 34-35.

A 16C German puzzle glass is shown and described in: Franz Sales Meyer. (Ornamentale Formenlehre; 1888. Translated as: A Handbook of Ornament; Batsford, 1894. Reprinted as: Meyer's Handbook of Ornament; Omega Books, London, 1987, pp. 351 & 353, plate 207 (on p. 351), fig. 10. "To those times also belonged: Puzzle-glasses from which the liquor had to be sucked-out at the end of the handle (fig. 10): ...." The figure shows a tallish vessel apparently with a closed top through the hollow handle runs to the bottom of the vessel and the bottom of the handle bends out to provide a sucking point. The interior tube is marked with dotted lines.

Cardan. De Rerum Varietate. 1557, ??NYS. = Opera Omnia, vol. III, pp. 252. Liber XVIII. Urcei qui non se mergunt. Apparently a vase which one fills with water and then pours wine out of.

The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, has a late 16C Tantalus Cup (labelled Mazer Cup, item PDF A721) with a statue in the middle.

Prévost. Clever and Pleasant Inventions. (1584), 1998. Pp. 41-44. A Tantalus cup.

John Bate. The Mysteries of Nature and Art. In foure severall parts. The first of Water works. The second of Fire works. The third of Drawing, Washing, Limming, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of sundry Experiments. (Ralph Mab [sic], London, 1634.) The second Edition; with many additions into every part. Ralph Mabb, London, 1635. (3rd ed., Andrew Crooke, London, 1654.) [BCB 20-22. Toole Stott 81-83. HPL [Bate] RBC has 2nd & 3rd eds.] The first part has several examples, notably the following.

P. 2. How to make a conceited pot, which being filled with water, will of it selfe runne all out; but not being filled will not run out.

P. 3. Another conceited Pot out of which being first filled with wine and water, you may drinke pure wine apart, or faire water apart, or els both together.

Louis L. Lipski. Dated English Delftware: Tin-glazed Earthenware, 1600-1800. Sotheby Publications, London & Harper & Row, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1984. ??NYS -- cited and quoted by Sandfield. Their earliest upright puzzle jug is no. 1009, dated to 1653.

Edgar Gorer & J. F. Blacker. Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, Illustrated .... Quaritch, London, 1911. Vol. 1, plate 135 and preceding page. ??NYS -- cited by Rasmussen and quoted by Sandfield. Two illustrated examples of puzzle jugs, i.e. 'how-to-pour puzzles', dated from the Kang-he (= K'ang Hsi) period, 1662-1722. ??check dates.

Ozanam. 1694. Probs. 14 & 26: 1696: 286 & 294 & figs. 137 & 138, plate 47 & fig 146, plate 49; 1708: 362-363 & 370-371 & figs. 33 & 34, plate 15 & fig. 44, plate 18. Probs. 18 & 30: 1725: vol. 2: 389-390 & 404 & figs. 137 & 138, plate 47 & fig. 146, plate 49. Probs. 4 & 5: 1790: vol. 4: 33-35 & figs. 5-7, plate 1; 1803: 34-36 & figs. 5-7, plate 1; 1840: 613 614. Three forms of Tantalus cups. In 1790, it is called Tantalus and a figure of Tantalus is put in the cup so that when the liquid approaches him, it runs out. Some of these are such that they pour out when the cup is tilted.

Patrick J. Donnelly. Blanc de Chine: The Porcelain of Tehua in Fukien. London, 1969. Pp. 95, 345, Appendix 5: N86 & N69. ??NYS -- cited and quoted by Sandfield. Describes some tantalus cups, where the siphon is concealed in a figure, dated 1675 1725. The T'ao-ya says the figure represents Lu Hung-chien (= Lu Hong Jian), a 16C author on porcelain whose name was Hsiang Yuan-pien Tzu-ching and that the vessel is called a 'quiet mind' dish. Augustus the Strong (of Saxony?) had an example before 1721. There is an example in the Princessehof Museuem, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Other versions mentioned in Sandfield have naked men or women in the cups.

The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, has a 'peach shaped wine pot', i.e. a Cadogan pot, from the Kangxi period, 1662-1722, item PDF 826.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has an example from the K'ang Hsi period (1622 1722). ??NYS -- cited and quoted by Sandfield. ??check dates.

Alberti. 1747. Art 31, pp. ?? (131-132) & fig. 57 on plate XVI, opp. p. ?? (130). Vase pours different liquors.

Tissandier. Récréations Scientifiques. 1880?; 2nd ed., 1881, pp. 327-328 describes 'vases trompeurs', with illustrations on pp. 324-325. Says they were popular in the 18C and earlier and the illustrations are of examples in the Musée de la Manufacture de Sèvres. Not in 5th ed., 1888.

Tissandier. Popular Scientific Recreations. 1890? Pp. 65-67, with illustrations on pp. 67-69, describes "vases of Tantalus" -- cups which cannot be filled too full -- and then gives the material from the 2nd French ed., 1881.

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Room 47 has a fine example of a Lambeth puzzle jug dated 1745.

The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Room 255 has a fine example of a Delft puzzle jug dated 1768.

Henry Pierre Fourest. Delftware: Faience Production at Delft. (Translated from La Faiences de Delft.) Rizzoli, NY, 1980. P. 136, no. 130. ??NYS - cited and quoted by Sandfield. Shows a Delft puzzle jug from second half of 18C. In a footnote, the author says: "This very old common form was copied from the Chinese for the East India Company."

Sandfield says the earliest English Cadogan teapots were made at Swindon, Yorkshire, after 1806 and they became popular after 1810.

Badcock. Philosophical Recreations, or, Winter Amusements. [1820]. Pp. 130-131, no. 195 & Frontispiece fig. 10: Hydraulic Experiment called Tantalus's Cup.

Rational Recreations. 1824. Experiment 66, pp. 122-123. Tantalus cup.

The Boy's Own Book. 1828: 446. Tantalus's cup. With statue of Tantalus inside.

An exhibit in the Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum, London, says Mrs Cadogan brought the first examples, of what became Cadogan teapots, to England about 1830, but see above.

Young Man's Book. 1839. Pp. 172-173. Tantalus's Cup.

The Secret Out. 1859.