This jug features a relief image on either side of the famous 19th century animal trainer Isaac Van Amburgh (1808-1865) performing with lions, tigers and a panther. Under its rim is a decoration of a swagged theatre curtain, a reference to the fact that Van Amburgh often performed his act in theatres, as well as in the circus.

Van Amburgh, three-quarters Dutch and one-quarter Cherokee Indian, was born in America and made his name there with the Titus Menagerie before coming to England in 1838. He was believed to be the first to train a mixed group of cats, and his Drury Lane performance so entranced Queen Victoria that she attended three performances in two weeks and wrote about it in her diaries. In 1839 the Duke of Wellington commissioned Landseer to paint Van Amburgh's portrait, and numerous engravings of him appeared performing various dramatic episodes with his beasts such as The Brute Tamer of Pompeii. The manufacturers of this moulded Staffordshire jug would have copied an engraving for this image of him, and produced the jug in two sizes. Since Van Amburgh toured England on several occasions and was a sensation wherever he went, the jug would have been a popular souvenir.