Studio Research: Fuddling Cups
“The word “fuddling” carries a double-meaning—to both confuse and intoxicate, and this cup delivers both”
To beffudle; puzzle and confuse, addle, bedazzle, bewilder, fox, puzzle, throw, baffle. The Cambridge dictionary gives the example Federer has a wide repertoire of clever shots that befuddle even the best of his opponents.
Or befuddled, confused: I'm so tired, my poor befuddled brain can't absorb any more.
Fuddling cups must surely take root in name from befuddled, these puzzles designed to entertain drinkers- cups joined together at the sides and with twisted handles. At the side joins, small holes allow liquid to move through the different cups. Though, at 9.8cm tall, as the V&A points out, “the three interlinked cups would hardly contain enough ale to induce drunkenness.”
Fuddling Cup, c. 1630-50, British Lambeth or Southwark, Met Museum
Wikipedia offers this;
A fuddling cup is a three-dimensional puzzle in the form of a drinking vessel, made of three or more cups or jugs all linked together by holes and tubes.[1][2] The challenge of the puzzle is to drink from the vessel in such a way that the beverage does not spill. To do this successfully, the cups must be drunk from in a specific order. Fuddling cups were especially popular in 17th- and 18th-century England.
More useful still, from the Dallas Museum of Art ;
To "fuddle" means to make foolish by drink, and this novelty item assisted in that process. The drinker was challenged to empty the three compartments simultaneously without spilling any liquid. Although it appears impossible to drink without leaking the cup's contents, the three sections are connected by holes in their joining walls, which allows all liquids to drain to the compartment from which one is drinking. The word “fuddling” carries a double-meaning—to both confuse and intoxicate, and this cup delivers both.
To me, the 17th/18th century (AD) Fuddling Cups appear to echo these much earlier base-ring ware double flasks (1600-1400 BC)
Fired clay base-ring ware double flask, 1600-1400 BC, Fitzwilliam Museum.
I had a phone photo of the one in the Fitzwilliam Museum’s collection (above), but searching online found this piece from “The David Johnson Collection” (interesting side note, Johnson is repatriating his collection of ancient Cypriot pieces through the Walk of Truth charity, you can read more on his website).
He describes the flask as:
A Base Ring I Ware grey slip pottery double-bodied bilbil or poppy flask with a single conjoined handle. This is a continuation of the early/Middle Bronze Age tradition of complex vessels formed by merging multiple simpler forms.
Two 19th Century ink inscribed labels on both bases: "Egypte" and "107" so probably found in Egypt, as many Cypriot bulbils have been. Both the smaller and larger types were much exported, particularly to Egypt and the Levant. One of the single smaller type such as this has been shown to contain opium (though the test has since been questioned) and the shape when inverted suggests a poppy seed-head. However the chief export to Egypt was copper.
The inverted poppy seed-head shape is echoed in the fuddling cup form too, in my opinion.
Fuddling Cup, 1630-1640, V&A Musem. “The painted symbols, freely borrowed from Chinese porcelain, are at odds with its lumpish form.”
Interesting to think of people entertaining themselves, through objects and design. I was first drawn to the fuddling cups as I think they are just a beautiful form (although called “lumpish” by the V&A). Something about the handles leaves a thread swirling in my mind, connecting around the three cups over and over again. I made one to fire in the Oxford Anagama and between shifts, trying and failing to sleep, the cups were burnt into my vision in a white hot light, day after day after watching it burning in the front of the kiln. I exhibited my own nod to a fuddling cup last summer, and found out later that it reminded the collector who bought it of the closeness of her, her partner and mother living together through the pandemic. I’d never seen the hugging thing, in the fuddling cups, but the same idea kept coming back from people who crossed paths with them. It was nice, but surprising- I see the cups getting bigger and loopier, and they are very far in my mind from the close softness of an embrace.
I'm so tired, my poor befuddled brain can't absorb any more
So these beautiful (what is the real meaning of beautiful/ what’s a better word for beautiful/ how do you describe a beautiful person/ Google)
Generally pleasing: EXCELLENT (Marriam Webster)
these beautiful pieces which I think stand alone in form were made to entertain people whilst drinking together, they existed to serve the purpose of befuddlement (confuse, perplex// a problem that still befuddles the experts).
Hi Ali , I love the fuddling cups , I see people embracing too , beautiful shapes but what a funny idea ! Amazing . Be beautiful cups for flowers , sweetpeas with all their wayward tendrils, entwined like the cups !
Love this Ali 🤍