commemorative jug / The Virginia / Nathaniel Trumbull, c. 1788

Earthenware jug, Hanley, Staffordshire, c. 1788. Creamware, printed and painted, swelling cylinder body, medium lip, incurved handles. On the obverse is printed a three-mast sailing ship in full sail printed and painted in tones of sepia and grey with figures of crew in red and green. At the stern is the American flag and on the middle mast is a stars-and-stripes pennant. Below is printed 'The Virginia'. On the reverse: within a printed floral cartouche is a spade-shaped shield of arms, yellow three mullets, two above and one below a chevron. Below, ribboned inscription 'The Arms of Davies'. Around rim printed floral festoon border. Under spout within circular floral cartouche, 'Nathaniel Trumbull', below the figure of Hope leaning on anchor; in the distance a ship at sea. Below the handle is the American eagle holding a shield or arms; in its beak a ribboned motto 'Ne Pluribus Unum'. Above are stars on a rayed band. Mark - impressed 'Wilson' (probably Robert Wilson of Hanley, Ref: Chaffers, p. 705). Nathaniel Trumbull (1749-1823) was a Dublin tobacco merchant, who ran a tobacco business in Dublin until 1814, when he transferred the business to his nephew and business partner Nathaniel Anderson.;