Fair Hebe Jug: C.747-1928

Titles

Fair Hebe Jug

Maker(s)

Factory: Richard Meir Astbury's Factory
Proprietor: Astbury, Richard Meir
Modeller: Voyez, John

Entities

• Jug

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware

Description

Cream earthenware, slip-cast and decorated with slightly blue-tinted clear, and blue, green, yellow, grey and black lead glazes

Notes

History note: John Bowden, Wardour Street, London, from whom purchased for £6 on 3 March 1899 by Dr J.W.L. Glaishe, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

18th Century, Late
George III
Circa 1788 CE - 1790 CE

Note

Fair Hebe jugs were made in moulds taken from a model by John Voyez (1735-1800). Hebe was the subject of a song adapted from Part I of A Pastoral Ballad in Four Parts (1743), by William Shenstone (1714-1763). This origin is supported by a teapot modelled by Voyez, decorated with a portrait medallion of Shenstone on one side, and Fair Hebe and her lover on the other. This jug bears the impressed initials RMA for the potter, Richard Meir Astbury of Fenton Others are known with the initials RG for Robert Garner, for example C.748-1928. An unusual, and probably unique caneware jug, with the impressed mark 'Sir/W.W.W./Bart' on its base was made at a short-lived pottery at Wynnstay, on Sir Williams Watkins Wynne's estate, which was set up with the aid of Voyez shortly before Wynne died in 1789. There are also much smaller examples, painted in enamels, such as C. 769-1928.