Hunting Mug: C.1201-1928

Titles

Hunting Mug

Maker(s)

Production: Factory C (Probably)

Entities

• Mug
• tankard

Categories

• Stoneware
• Brown salt-glazed stoneware

Description

Brown salt-glazed stoneware hunting mug with applied reliefs, incised inscription, name and date

Buff stoneware, thrown, and turned, with freckled brown dip on the upper part of the body and handle, decorated with applied moulded reliefs, and incised inscriptions, and salt-glazed. The sides of the cylindrical mug curve inwards slightly for 2.5 cm above the base where there are three turned bands, and then rise almost vertically to the rim. The broad strap handle has a central depression and a folded in kick at the lower end. The sides are decorated with a reliefs. On the front is a rose and crown inn sign over a rectangular scene of a stag hunt in a landscape. On either side of it there is a rosette, the arms of the Bakers' Company, another rosette placed lower down, and a tree. Round the lower, buff-coloured area, there is a clockwise staghunt: a huntsman on foot, a mounted huntsman, a couple of hounds, two couple of hounds (4), three hounds and a stag. Below the rim is an incised inscription: 'Dont think yr Self a Sott Untill we have ye other Pott'. On either side of the rectangular stag hunt plaque is the owner's name and date, 'Jno Harriss att Astell Mill/17 36'.

Notes

History note: Bought by Professor H.H. Turner, a Fellow of New College, Oxford,for £3 from a descendant (also named Harris) of the original owner at his farm at Stanton St John near Oxford; given by Prof. Turner to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher in September 1905, who insisted on reimbursing him for its purchase.

Legal notes

Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest

Place(s) associated

• London ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

18th Century, second quarter#
George II
Production date: dated AD 1736

Note

London hunting mugs can be divided into three groups, A, B, and C, by the details of their decoration. Type A has been shown by archaeology to have been made at Vauxhall. The names and places on the other two groups suggest that they were made in London rather than Bristol, but their attribution is uncertain. Type C mugs which are dated between 1735 and 1775 may have been made at Lambeth High Street Pottery. The four earliest dated 1735, 1736 (2) and 1737 have a stag hunting plaque on the front. Most of the later examples have a Punch Party.

Research by W.W. Hamilton Foyn, found that John Harris was a corn miller at Asthall Mill, situated beside the old coaching road to London, near Burford in Oxfordshire. The Harris family was prosperous through ownership of paper, fulling, and corn mills on the river Windrush. John Harris was not a member of the Bakers' Company, as might be presumed from the two coats of arms of the Company on the mug, but these were often used by millers who were not members.

School or Style

Baroque