This is a great older coffee pot. Measures 9" tall 4" at the base- a smaller pot but very nice – is very clean inside and out. Right from the beginning, coffee pots were used for brewing coffee. They had sharp pour spouts to block most of the coffee grounds from escaping, and a squat bottom for good heat absorbtion. There is no evidence that filters were used in the coffee houses of the time.Then, evolution struck when someone poured hot water through sock containing ground coffee. This was the first known use of a filter. The filter evolved and it got a commercial name: "Mr. Biggin." In 1780 "Biggin pots" appeared for the first time. But they had a number of problems. For example, if the coffee was ground too fine, the water would run out the sides of the lid because it couldn't penetrate the coffee quickly enough. But if the coffee was ground was too coarsely, the water would flow through it too quickly, and the brew would be too weak.
After the Biggin pot, there came the metal filter baskets with spreaders that would evenly distribute the coffee grounds and the water. The "water filter spreader coffee brewer" was used to spread the water evenly into the coffee while the coffee dripped through the filter. In 1802, the metal coffee filter was patented in France.
A couple of years later, in 1806, another patent used a metal disk hardened with a rammer to compress the level of the coffee grounds in the coffee pot. This was obviously the precursor to the "French press" coffee pot.