400 YEARS OF WATER CONSUMPTION: EARLY MODERN POTTERY CUPS IN PORTUGAL

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the production and consumption of drinking cups in Portugal examining their productive and decorative characteristics and establishing their relation with the ingestion of water between the 15th and 18th centuries. Although drinking cups started to be used much earlier, during the early modern age an international demand for such objects emerges. This fame will take them to places from Northern Europe to the New World where their colour, taste and smell were highly appreciated.