Jug

The jug is complete, with the exception of a few small fragments on one edge of the handle, and the handle has been repaired with metal studs. It is circular in shape. The wall is domed, the shoulder is rounded, the neck is slightly flared towards the rim, which is straight. A silver-plated metal post has been inserted on the rim; its top is flat. 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 are three marks made by intaglio printing. One of the marks features a crowned lion statant, standing on a count’s crown and a knight’s tortillon. Beneath this is a circle marked around the circumference: ROYAL DOULTON ENGLAND surrounding an anagram of the letter D. Nearby are the numbers 5406. There’s a mark on the metal upright, made of four aligned recessed cartouches, each marked with a letter: EPNS. The broken shackle has been repaired with eight copper metal studs, six on the front and two on the reverse, each inserted into a pair of holes drilled in the shackle. The handle has also been reinforced at the top by a surrounding oval ring, topped by a rod that passes through a hole drilled in the neck, and ends in a round head riveted to the inside of the neck ; The decoration is incised, plastered and moulded. The neck of the pot has two horizontal grooves incised under the rim. The upper outer half of the pot is covered with a transparent dark-brown coating, 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 separate 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 venery scene. 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 an owl stands facing 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 cove has been cast separately. The handle has three vertical bulges between grooves on the center of its face. Its lower base is adorned with a rosette, set in the center of a leafy triangle; the handle is held to the wall by a horizontal rectangular band, with a rivet at each end.