Description:A spill or taper was used to transfer a flame from an existing lit source to wherever else it was needed.
Made of tightly wound paper or thin wooden sticks, they were stored in simple wooden pots or decorative ceramic spill vases like these forming part of the room décor on fireplace mantles. The spills could be used to anything from candles, ranges, lamps to tobacco.
This pair of ceramic spill vase figures form part of collection donated by Clarice Shorter in 1965. Clarice was a well known ceramic artist from the 1920s onwards and is better known as Clarice Cliff.