A.E.Gray & Co.Ltd. and Unidentified
“Arms of the Shipwright’s Company” Jug
1914-1924
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Earthenware, transfer-printed and luster decoration, 7 1/2 × 6 13/16 × 4 1/2 in. (19.1 × 17.3 × 11.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Bequest of H. Morris Whitehurst, Baltimore
Object Number
1988.1354
Ceramics were major cargo on the maritime trade routes of the 16th to 18th centuries, and potters through the 20th century capitalized on the intertwined relationship between ceramics and the ocean through decorative imagery. Ceramicists alluded to the sea by
molding real shells and creatures, creating water-like droplets of glaze, and painting or printing scenes of shores and shipbuilders in Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of oceanic imagery on domestic objects like plates, vases, and tureens also reveals the owner’s personal investment in colonial and maritime activities.
Inscribed: Poem on one side of jug: ‘Fill your cups and banish grief. / Laugh and worldly care despise. / Sorrow neer will bring relief. Joy from drinking will bring arise (?). / So pour this full and sup it up. / And call for more to fill your cup.’ Inscription on the image of the jug above the transfer printed poem ‘Old Tobeys Jug’ Inscription over second print: ‘The Shipwright’s Arms’
Maker
Unidentified
2000-01-01 00:00:00–2000-01-01 00:00:00
