Object Type
Large jugs of 'Dutch' shape, with a squat globular body and short cylindrical neck, became fashionable from about 1800. They were intended for serving beer.

Materials & Making
The potter John Turner (died 1787) of Lane End, Staffordshire, is said to have discovered around 1780 a vein of clay which provided him with a highly refined creamy-white stoneware body from which he made large numbers of crisply potted and decorated jugs. As one of the leading potters of his day (he was appointed Potter to the Prince of Wales in 1784) he also had a retail outlet in London, from where he sold his wares, including the stoneware jugs which were often mounted in silver or Sheffield plate. On his death, his refined stonewares continued to be made by his sons John & William until their bankruptcy in 1806. By this time the excellence of his stonewares had been not only equalled by rivals such as the Adams factory at Tunstall, Staffordshire (William Adams, active from 1779; died 1805; and his son Benjamin Adams, died 1821), but a new semi-translucent stoneware body containing porcelain ingredients had been developed for jugs and teawares.

Ownership & Use
The use of beer jugs to promote political causes extended back to the 1770s, when overglaze black prints in huge profusion were added to creamwares and Pearlwares. The motifs on spigged white stonewares were, however, usually allegorical or concerned with sports and pastimes. This apparently unique and slightly ambiguous jug may have therefore been commissioned by a prosperous client involved in the anti-slavery campaign, which was highly unpopular in many quarters, for example seaports such as Bristol and Liverpool, both busily involved in the transatlantic slave trade.