1. A flower-pot with a lily growing in it; a representation of this, commonly occurring as a symbolic accessory in pictures of the Annunciation, and hence frequent as a religious emblem.
1540. Invent. Ch. Goods, in Gentl. Mag. Libr., Ecclesiology, 157. A single vestment of white damask imbroidrede with lily pots.
1578–9. New Year’s Gifts, in Nichols, Progr. Eliz. (1823), II. 251. A lylly pot of agathe, a lylly flower going owte of it garnesshed with roses of rubyes.
1898. Archaeol. Jrnl., LV. 172. This triple division occurs also on the brass of Bishop Andreas at Posen, dated 1479, where the lily-pot forms the central upright band of the episcopal mitre.
2. An ornamental vase imitating the ‘lily-pot’ of sacred art; in the early 17th c. app. spec. a tobacco-jar.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. iii. He keepes it [Tobacco] in fine Lilly-pots, that open’d, Smell like conserue of Roses, or French Beanes.
c. 1618. Fletcher, Q. Corinth, II. iv. Vintner: Look into the Lilly-pot.
a. 1652. Brome, Weeding Covent-Gard., II. ii. (1658), 34. Vint. Y’are welcome, Gentlemen, take up the lillie-pot.
b. Her. (See quot.; the use seems incorrect.)
1780. Edmondson, Her., II. Gloss., Lily-pot see Covered Cup.
† 3. A size of writing paper distinguished by the ‘lily-pot’ as a water-mark. Obs.
1589. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Supererog. (1592), 138. Stationers … find more gain in the lillypot blank than in the lilly-pot Euphued.
