Jug (Sample pitcher (oversized))

Description

This lead-glazed, white earthenware (pearlware) jug or pitcher was thrown on the wheel and has a rounded, triangular pouring lip. The ear-shaped handle has a spur near the top and on the interior of the loop. The jug is printed in black and painted with polychrome enamels. Flanking the neck are landscapes with male and female figures walking by houses, trees, and livestock. Below the pouring lip is the inscription "OXFORD./ Wholesale & Retail,/ WAREHOUSE." Below the inscription are two printed motifs. In one a male is slave is chained to a rock with a ship on the ocean in the background and has the inscription "A[M] NOT I/ A MAN/ AND A BROTHER." Nearby, an oval medallion bears the inscription "NEGROES/ Forc'd from home & all its pleasures,/ Afric's coast I left forlorn;/ To increase a strangers treasure,/ O'er the raging billows borne,/ Fleecy locks and black complection/ Cannot forfiet natures claim/ Skins may differ but affection/ Dwells in white and black the same./ COMPLAINT." To the left of the handle, an oval medallion portrays a white figure in robes and a helmet with two black slaves, a lion and in the background, two ships, all ove the inscription "BRITANNIA PROTECTING THE AFRICANS." Below is a compass motif surmounted by a banner inscribed"COME BOX THE COMPASS" over a sailor with a rope and a sailing ship. Below is the inscription "Invented by Murphy a Dutchman/ AD1229 first exhibited at Venice/ 1260 Improved by Giora of Naples/ 1309 its declination discovered by/ Hartman 1338" in black. To the left, are two pillars with female figures on pedestals and a checked floor. The pillars flank a female sitting on the clouds with an anchor below a laurel wreath, all above masonic symbols. Above are three female figures, perhaps meant to represent Justice, Liberty, and Peace, who gaze at a portrait of a man. There are books and a globe at the female figures' feet. To the right of the handle is an oval medallion surmounted by a floral leafy bough and portraying a man holding the hand of a woman on the edge of a precipice while gesturing to a winged figure above. Ships sail in the distance. Below is part of a poem "POOR JACK. / I said to our poll for you see she would cry, / When last we weigh'd anchor for sea. / What argufies sniveling and piping your eye. / Why, what a domn'd fool you must be, / Can't you see the worlds wide & theres room / For us all, both for seamen and lubbers ashored" // "And if to old Davy I should go my Dear Poll. / Why you will never will hed of me more / What then alls hazard come don't be as soft / Perhaps I may laughing come back. / For d'ye see theres a cherub sits smiling aloft / To keep watch for the life of poor Jack". Below the poem is a three-masted ship flying an American flag. The ship sails on calm water and has a collection of weaponry below the water. To the right is an image of a man kneeling with a dead rabbit and his hunting dogs. Above this design a man reclines in the forest with two dogs. On the jug's interior are two impressed marks: "W S" in Roman lettering stamped incuse and "W (***)" with three asterisks, in Roman lettering stamped in a rectangle.