A Staffordshire slipware owl-jug and cover

CIRCA 1700

Details

A Staffordshire slipware owl-jug and cover
Circa 1700
Of lead-glazed red earthenware slip-decorated in cream and brown, the cover modelled as the owl's head with dark brown eyes set in wide cream sockets within dot borders beneath a raised ridge crest, the back of the head decorated with zig-zags, the oviform body with allover scrambled combed decoration, the tear-shaped wings with zig-zag and other geometric ornament within dot borders, the reverse with a short protruding tail and striped loop handle, the base modelled as two three-toed claw feet gripping a circular socle (tip of beak lacking and four short hairline cracks to cover, one claw chipped and two hairline cracks around socle, minute rim chips to cover and jug, slight losses to slip decoration and other very minor surface chipping)
9 in. (23 cm.) high

Lot Essay

Cf. the example in the British Museum, illustrated by R.L. Hobson, Catalogue of the Collection of English Pottery in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (1903), D92, pl. V and William Burton, A History of English Earthenware and Stoneware (1904), fig. 3. See also the jug in the City Museum, Stoke on Trent (accession number 1990 P 432) which was sold by Phillips on 7 March 1990, lot 217 and the example illustrated by Leslie B. Grigsby, The Henry H. Weldon Collection, English Pottery 1650-1800 (1990), fig. 234. A further example, from the Rous Lench Collection, was sold in these Rooms, 27 April 1998, lot 10.

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