Bear jug: C.499 & A-1928

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Staffordshire Pottery

Entities

• Bear jug

Categories

• Stoneware
• White salt-glazed stoneware

Description

White salt-glazed stoneware container in the form of a bear with furof applied shreds of clay, and details applied in brown slip

White stoneware, thrown in two parts with applied ears, muzzle, and limbs, covered with coarse shreds of clay to imitate fur, decorated with dark brown slip details, and salt-glazed. The bear is sitting upright holding a functional coiling whistle in its forepaws. It has a tubby body and a separate head which serves as a cup. In its snout it has a salt-glazed stoneware ring attached by a piece of metal wire. Brown slip has beeen applied in short stripes on the paws, and muzzle, and in spots on the whistle, round the lower part of the head, and on the ears. The eyes are formed by two circles of white clay with a brown slip spot in the centre and two short brown lines above.

Notes

History note: Puttick & Simpson, London, 24 June 1921, lot 59; sold to Mack for £4.4s. bidding on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge, who fetched it to Cambridge on 6 July

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, Mid
George II
Circa 1740 CE - 1770 CE

Note

This bear jug is unusual because it holds a functional whistle, see Documentation for another. It is assumed that bears like this were for alcoholic liquor and that their heads served as cups. No contemporary illustrations of them in use have been found. Nor are dated examples known, but it seems likely that they were made between about 1740 and 1770, when white salt-glazed stoneware was most popular.