Jug decorated with 'Huntsmen outside an Inn': C.1264-1928

Titles

Jug decorated with 'Huntsmen outside an Inn'

Maker(s)

Factory: William & John Turner (Probably)
Factory: Turner and Abbott
Turners, Abbott and Newbury (Possibly)
Silversmith: Tibbitts, J (Possibly)

Entities

• Jug

Categories

• Stoneware
• White dry-bodied stoneware
• Sprigged stoneware

Description

Dry-bodied white stoneware decorated with applied sprigs of trees, and of a group of huntsmen, horses and hounds outside an inn, and with brown wash on the neck and handle; silver mount.

Dry-bodied white stoneware with glazed interior, turned neck beneath glazed brown wash, the lower part engine-turned, and the sides decorated with moulded and applied sprigs. The jug has an ovoid body, a cylindrical neck with pulled lip, and an angular applied handle with a pseudo-strap fastening it to the neck, and a large serrated leaf terminal where the lower end joins the body. The lower part is engine-turned with bamboo flutes with two raised horizontal bands at the top, above which, on the front below the lip, is a large sprig of three huntsmen, a maid servant, two horses, and two hounds standing beside a tree with an inn sign suspended from it. One huntsman holds up a mug as if raising a toast. On the viewer's left, is a tree with a stump beside it, and on the right a tree with more abundant foliage at the top, and more at its base. The neck is encircled by a silver mount which has a raised horizontal line half-way up. The underside is very slightly recessed and bears the impressed mark 'TURNER'.

Notes

History note: Sotheby’s on February 20. 1911, part of lot 36; bought by Mr S. Fenton for Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge. Lot contained two jugs for £1.12; Dr Glaisher considered this jug cost 16 shillings.

Legal notes

Dr. J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest, 1928

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

George III
18th Century, Late
Circa 1784 CE - Circa 1804 CE

Note

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. In the 1780s, the Turners introduced jugs and mugs like this example, with ribbed, brown-glazed necks and sharply modelled sprigs - designs formed in small plaster, clay or brass moulds and applied to leather hard clay. The jugs were made with and without a silver mount, and sometimes with a hinged lid.The style was soon imitated by other businesses, and other businesses, notably Adams and Spode, are known to have bought up moulds in the 1806 Turner bankrupcy sale. From around the mid 1820s, however, such jugs were more often made in two-piece relief moulds. There are several examples in the Fitzwilliam Collection.

The Turner factory was founded in Stoke about 1760 by John Turner and was initially known as Turner & Banks. In 1762 Turner moved to Lane End, Longton, and from 1762 to 1781 John Turner was the sole proprietor. From 1781 to 1787 it was known as Turner and Abbot. John Turner died in 1787 and was succeeded by his two sons, William and John. The firm was known as Turners, Abbott & Newbury from 1788 to 1792, and from 1792 to 1803 as William and John Turner. From 1803 until their bankruptcy in 1806 the firm continued as Turner(s), Glover & Simpson. The Turners ran various smaller potworks until 1829. John Turner died in 1824, and William in 1835. During the 1780s and 1790s the brothers experimented widely and their firm became one of the largest manufacturers of dry-bodied stoneware, making jasper, white stoneware and caneware, including a range of lidded pie dishes which mimic pastry in the shape of pies or animals (see C.29-2013).

The mark on the silver mount may be that registered by a Sheffield silversmith , J.Tibbitts, in 1778. This earliest known silver date mark on the mount on the rim of a jug with the' Huntsmen at the Inn' sprig is 1784 However, although this jug could be as early as 1784, it was probably made some years later up to 1804.