A jug transfer printed with scenes of ‘Com Macdonoughs Victory on Lake Champlain Sepr 11th 1814.’, and ‘The Wasp & Reindeer’, with plum copper lustre collar and handle, by Bentley, Wear and Bourne, Staffordshire

The jug commemorates two American victories in the War of 1812, the sinking of the HMS Reindeer by the American sloop USS Wasp on 28 June 1814, and the Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, 6-11 September 1814.

‘Many of these transfers appearing on pitchers produced in the 1815-1820 period depiciting the naval battles [of the War of 1812] bear the signature of “Bentley, Wear & Bourne, Engravers & Printers, Shelton, Staffordshire.” It is interesting to note that the engravings signed by Bentley, Wear and Bourne which were used on these designs are the same views used to illustrate The Naval Monument by Abel Bowen published in Boston in 1816. … The military and naval heroes in this war were very popular in America at this time. Consequently black and white transfers of Hull, Pike, Decatur, Lawrence, Bainbridge, Brown, Perry and Jones were also used to decorate pitchers and mugs imported from England. More commonly the transfers were applied to the cream coloured surface of the pottery but in finer specimens the transfers appear on white panels on the sides of pitchers having an apple green, canary yellow or plum coloured body.’ (R.H. McCauley, Liverpool Transfer Designs on Anglo-American Pottery, Portland, Maine, 1942, pp.35-6)