Description:

Mug of cylindrical form, the looped handle with simple leaf terminals.  The side of the mug opposite to the handle has printed decoration in black.  The print, appears to have been made for a taller vessel as the design bleeds off the top edge of the mug.  Beneath an image of what is probably a bow and quiver of arrows, perhaps symbolizing...

Description:

Mug of cylindrical form, the looped handle with simple leaf terminals.  The side of the mug opposite to the handle has printed decoration in black.  The print, appears to have been made for a taller vessel as the design bleeds off the top edge of the mug.  Beneath an image of what is probably a bow and quiver of arrows, perhaps symbolizing cupid and love, is a circular design showing a young couple having alighted from a carriage and standing in a blacksmith’s shop where the blacksmith is in the act of performing a marriage ceremony.  Beneath the circular image is the title and a verse

GRETNA GREEN or the RED HOT MARRIAGE
Oh! M^r. Blacksmith ease our pains:
And tie us fast in Wedlocks Chains

The frame of the circular print, the title and the verse are washed in a transparent yellow color, the floor of the blacksmith’s shop has a light wash of transparent green.

Beneath the circular print to the bottom left is the inscription Tittensor. Similar, if not identical prints are paired with prints signed Fletcher. A partnership between Thomas Fletcher and William Tittensor the Younger was dissolved in 1794 and perhaps they both subsequently added their own names to designs which they had previously used in their partnership.  Certainly the name Tittensor on this piece is not engraved with the care and elegance seen in the rest of the design.