Hunting scene wine jug: C.119-2015

Titles

Hunting scene wine jug

Maker(s)

Unidentified factory

Entities

• Jug

Categories

• Stoneware
• Relief-moulded stoneware
• Smear-glazed stoneware

Description

Light brown, relief moulded stoneware jug, with applied white stoneware reliefs; smear-glazed; glazed interior.

Small jug with bulbous body, tapering towards the base. The neck is flared, with a broad lip. The handle is moulded in a flowing dolphin-like design with a thumb piece. The base is encircled by a mock-gadroon design. Each side of the body has a moulded hunting scene in low relief, with figures of two horsemen surrounded by dogs, against a background of trees. In one, the dogs are running while the riders wait by a gate. In the other, one rider has dismounted to show dead prey to the other, while the dogs crowd around. A large tree divides the scenes, its trunk smoothed to cover the join of the press moulded halves. A faux gadroon design runs around the base. On the neck are three applied white stoneware sprigs: fruiting vines and flowers on each side, and classical motifs on the underside of the lip. The underside is recessed and smear-glazed.

Notes

History note: Sir Ivor and Lady Batchelor, St Andrew’s, Fife; Sir Ivor died on 24 April 2005; on loan since 2006

Legal notes

Sir Ivor and Lady Batchelor Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2015-04-27) by Batchelor, Ivor, Sir and Lady

Note

Relief moulded jugs were popular in mid 19th Century homes, where they were used for water, beer milk and other liquids which might now be kept in bottles, cans or plastic jars. The smear-glazing makes the most of the way that colour-stained clays show off crisply-moulded ornament, the stoneware is sufficiently durable for everyday use and two piece press-moulding was a relatively inexpensive process. There are several examples in the Fitzwilliam Collection.

The earliest recorded relief moulded jugs of this type date from c.1820 (see C.48-1981) and they were widely available from the early 1930s. The white stoneware sprigs on this example suggest an early date, perhaps c.1820-30, since the application of sprigs would have added to the labout cost. The style is similar to white stoneware jugs made by Wedgwood, c.1820, also decorated in relief with sprigs applied around the neck, although the handle is different. Hunting scenes were used on sprigged jugs from the late 18th Century, and the same scenes were later often used for relief moulds. This same scene was used by Wedgwood on a similarly-shaped white stoneware jug decorated with painted reliefs and sprigs around the neck, and by other factories on relief moulded drab coloured stoneware.