Current Location: In storage
Maker(s)
Production:
James Morley
Entities
Categories
Description
Salt-glazed stone-ware incised and pierced with sprays of flowers.
Grey-coloured stone-ware coloured with brown slip and salt-glazed. The mug has a cylindrical neck and a globular body with double walls and a hollow base. There is a loop handle. The neck and handle are reeded and the outer wall of the body is incised with four plants, each with three stems and a range of different pierced shapes representing the flower heads.
Notes
History note: Provenance unidentified before Mr Sheldon, Manchester, who sold on 12 May 1925 to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge
Legal notes
Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest
Measurements and weight
Height: 9.9 cm
Width: 11.7 cm
Acquisition and important dates
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed
(1928-12-07)
by
Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
Dating
18th Century, Early
Circa
1700
CE
-
1705
CE
Note
A trade card dating from around 1700 and advertising the wares of “James Morley at the pothouse in Nottingham” includes an illustration of “A carved jug”, which is the same shape as this mug and is decorated with comparable, although not identical, pierced and incised floral sprays. This form of mug does not appear to have been exclusive to Morley and it is thought that many English potters produced items of this kind. It is therefore impossible to securely attribute a "carved jug" of this kind. However, the chocolate brown colour of the slip-coating and oily sheen of the salt-glaze on this mug are considered typical of Morley’s products, suggesting a possible Nottingham origin. There is a mug in the Victoria & Albert Museum of a similar brown colour which is inscribed ‘nott 1703’, lending further weight to the possibility the mug was produced in Nottingham.
The basic shape of this mug, with its bulbous body and thin neck, may have been inspired by contemporary silverware.
Components of the work
Body
Decoration
Neck
Materials used in production
brown
Slip
Salt-glaze
Stoneware
Techniques used in production
Salt-glazing
Slip-coating
Inscription or legends present
Inscription present: stick-on rectangular white paper collector’s label
- Text: “4593. Nottingham brown stoneware mug with pierced outer wall. From the Sheldon Collection. May 12, 1925.”
- Location: On base
- Method of creation: Handwritten in black ink
- Type: Label
References and bibliographic entries
Identification numbers
Accession number: C.1229-1928
Primary reference Number: 71626
Old catalogue number: 4593
Stable URI
Audit data
Created: Saturday 6 August 2011
Updated: Tuesday 30 April 2024
Last processed: Tuesday 15 July 2025
Associated departments & institutions
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
