Page 119

 
SLIPWARE      Beverage Wares 
Mugs and Cups (Single Handled) 
S56. MUG 
Staffordshire 
1685-1705 
H.: 4 1/4" (10.8 cm); 
Diam. (body): 4 1/4" (10.8 cm); 
Diam. (with handle): 5" (12.7 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Fine-grained 
reddish buff. 
LEAD GLAZE: Overall, excluding 
bottom. 
SHAPE: Thrown. Pulled handle, nearly 
flat on interior, partly convex on exte- 
rior. Slightly concave bottom. 
SLIP GROUND: Orange. Overall, 
excluding lower extreme of wall and 
bottom. 
DECORATION: Trailed and jeweled. 
Crowned head flanked by wavy lines. 
Borders composed of horizontal and 
overlapping wavy lines. 
he dating of this unique mug or jug is based partly on its shape. Its profile
has parallels in Longridge collection delftware (see nos. D246-D248, D250),
including a mug inscribed "GOD.BLES.KING.WlLIAM.&.QVEN.MARY,"
and in other 
collections' unglazed red stoneware,' salt-glazed white and brown stoneware,
and Chinese export porcelain. Also indicative of early production is the
crowned 
pseudoportrait head, with its formulaic curl-ended, V-shaped nose; oval eyes;
and open mouth. Variations on such heads were popular decorative features
on 
seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century slipware dishes and hollow shapes.
When no royal initials are included, the gender of a head or bust portrait
often 
can be identified only if a necklace (see no. S2) versus a collar is included.
   The combining of trailed cream-colored and dark brown slip against a dark
ground color, as demonstrated on this piece, is quite unusual, and the pale,
wiggly-line filler pattern is unknown on comparable pots. The border of over-
lapping wavy lines of two different colors on the neck, however, is of a
design 
that has much in common with jeweled borders on two Longridge dishes (see
nos. S32, S40). 
1. Grigsy, Weldon, p. 37. 
2. For white stoneware, see Grigsby, VWeldon, 
pl. 22. For brown stoneware and for jug as a 
period term for the shape, see Oswald, tlildyard, 
and I ltghes, Brown Stoneware, pils. 57- 58. 
The Longridge Collection 119