Shape Type: Miscellaneous

Pattern Type: Genre Scenes

Date: 1887

Dimensions:

  • Height: 5.12 in (13.00 cm)

Maker: Wedgwood

Maker's Mark:

Painted

Maker's Mark:

Painted

Description:

Bone china jug with printed decoration and hand painted gilding.  Above the lengthy inscription on the base is the painted pattern number 21353, this number may refer to the printed border pattern at the neck or to the specially commissioned designs around the body. 

The scenes are printed in a red/brown color and are described on the base as follows,  "SUBJECTS The whole interior of a Salt Glaze Pottery, painted in enamel colour by Duvivier in 1787, on a beaker designed by Gerverot, made in porcelain by H. Turner, the first manufacturer of china at Lane End, Staffordshire Potteries."

On one side of the jug is an image of the interior of a throwing room at a pottery.  Small cherubic children are depicted making balls of clay, turning the great wheel to power the wheel head, and throwing a pot on the wheel. In the background are shelves full of finished goods and a window has a view out to a pottery factory.  On the reverse other children can be seen preparing wares to be fired and carrying them to the oven where they are being placed for firing.  Again the back ground has shelves with finished goods and a faint view of buildings from the window.

The original Gerverot beaker was acquired by the British Museum in 2010. It is painted by Fidelle Duvivier, however, there is no evidence to suggest that it is decorated with scenes from a salt-glaze pottery,

The bone china jug was commissioned from Wedgwood’s factory and the details painted on the base read, "This Jug is made for Richard Briggs Boston Mass: By JOSIAH WEDGWOOD & SONS, EtRURiA StAffORDSHiRE 1887."  Richard Briggs inherited his family china and glass dealing business in Boston in 1861. It was a well-established house having been founded in 1798 and was within a short distance from the main shopping street and the homes of Boston’s most powerful citizens.  Briggs commissioned many special designs from English manufacturers, the most well-known is perhaps the Wedgwood earthenware jug made in 1880 and commemorating Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his work.

http://printedbritishpotteryandporcelain.com/what-did-they-make/pottery-item/jug-28