Jug

The jug is complete, except for a few small chips on the rim. It is circular in shape. The wall is domed, the shoulder is rounded, and the neck is slightly flared towards the rim, which is straight with a flat top. The neck is oval, caused by the pinching of the oval-shaped beak spout. The wall is tapered towards the base, which is straight. The bottom is almost flat. The handle is vertical. Oval in shape and cross-section, its upper end is turned down and rests on the neck, while the other rests on the wall. Under the bottom is a small spiral turning groove; the decoration is incised, plastered and molded. The neck of the pot has a horizontal groove incised under the rim. The upper outer half of the pot is covered with an opaque dark-brown coating with metallic highlights, which also covers the handle. Its lower half, like the lower part of the handle, is covered with a light-brown plaster, which also partially covers the bottom. The wall is decorated with separately molded scenes in two registers. The upper register features genre and tavern scenes, with three men dressed in late 18th century fashion. The other register features a hunting scene. The handle has been molded separately. The scene on the front of the pot shows a man (Toby Philpot) seen from the front, seated on a flat-topped rectangular chest, which rests on an uneven, grassy terrace. The man is dressed and wearing a hat; he holds a pipe in his left hand. His right hand grasps the handle of a covered stein placed on a pedestal table resting on the terrace; a shrub stands on the right. The second scene shows a man (the Thinker) in three-quarter view to the right, wearing a hat and sitting cross-legged on a barrel on a terrace. His left elbow is resting on a table on which rests a jug, seen in profile, from which moss is overflowing. Next to the barrel is a small rectangular pedestal, on which stands an owl in front of a plant. The third scene shows a man (the Smoker) in a three-quarter view to the left, dressed and wearing a hat, seated on a barrel placed on an uneven terrace. His right hand holds a smoking pipe, the mouthpiece of which is in the man’s mouth. At his feet lies a dog, seen in profile, standing in front of a shrub. This series of scenes is delimited, near the thinker, by a windmill seen from the front and mounted on a terrace, and, near the smoker, by a leafy tree on a terrace. The lower register features a courtyard hunt seen in profile to the left; it begins near the cove with the horn player on horseback, preceded by four running dogs chasing a stag heading for a wooded area represented by a tree. The handle has been cast separately. The handle features two vertical bulges between grooves on the center of its face. Its lower base is adorned with a rosette, set in the center of two mirrored leaves, similar to fleur-de-lis; the handle is held to the wall by a horizontal rectangular band, with a rivet at each end.