These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.
Download this imageCreative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.
Small jug or mustard pot
Pottery:
Adams, William
Silversmith:
Law, Thomas
Cream stoneware, decorated with applied reliefs; silver mount.
Round bodied, with short, straight neck and applied handle. Decorated with three sprigged classical scenes, one of which represents ‘the Choice of Hercules’, above a thin, continuous raised line. The neck has been turned to give horizontal ridges and a slight lip formed opposite the handle; it is covered on the outside with a thin dark brown wash, which continues over the top of the handle. Three incised lines run around the silver mount. The interior is glazed. The underside is very slightly recessed.
History note: Unknown before donor
Given by Miss A.L. Wyatt
Height: 8.2 cm
Width: 10.3 cm
Method of acquisition: Given (1984) by Wyatt, Agnes L., Miss
19th Century, Early#
Circa
1810
CE
-
1812
CE
Stoneware jugs were a common domestic item, used for water, beer milk and other liquids which might now be kept in bottles, cans or plastic jars. The size and style of this example suggest it may be a milk jug or, perhaps, a mustard pot, though there are no obvious signs that it ever had a lid (see note below). Sprigging, the application of designs formed in small plaster, clay or brass moulds and applied to leather hard clay, was a common form of decoration from the late eighteenth century. From around the mid 1820s, such jugs were more often made in two-piece relief moulds. There are several examples in the Fitzwilliam Collection.
William Adams ran a pot works in Tunstall from 1779 until his death in 1805; the business then continued under his son Benjamin until 1821. The business produced a wide range of products, but particularly stoneware and jasper jugs and mugs featuring neo-classical, hunting or contemporary scenes. Pots with ribbed, brown-glazed necks and sharply modelled sprigs, like this example, were a speciality. Turner, of Lane End, Longton had popularised this type of design in the late 18th Century (see C.1264-1928). Adams is known to have bought sprig moulds in the Turner bankrupcy sale of 1806, so it is possible that the designs used here came from that source. Thomas Law and Co. were cutlers and general silversmiths, and provided the mounts for many such Adams products. The Law business continued under subsequent generations until 1829, then as Atkin Brothers until 1925.
Interior
composed of
glaze
( clear, probably lead-glaze)
Decoration
Neck And Handle
Inscription present: maker's mark of Thomas Law;
Inscription present: indistinct
Accession number: C.863-1984
Primary reference Number: 76245
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Small jug or mustard pot" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76245 Accessed: 2024-12-18 16:43:20
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76245
|title=Small jug or mustard pot
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 16:43:20|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-76245
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa4/C_863_1984_281_29.jpg"
alt="Small jug or mustard pot"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Small jug or mustard pot</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...
