Tankard, reddish-brown stoneware with applied relief decoration painted in enamels and gilded, made in Annaberg, Germany, about 1670-90. Pewter mount.

Reddish-brown salt-glazed stoneware tankard of pear-shaped form with short neck and wide mouth. The surface, covered in dark brown slip, is decorated with an impressed scale pattern and applied relief decoration including a pair of bust portraits of a man and woman. The portraits are picked out in overglaze enamels and gilding. Other gilded and enamelled decoration in white, red, green, blue and flesh colour includes palmettes, lines and stripedor winding bands. There is a pewter mount at the foot. The pewter lid with spherical knob to the thumbpiece is engraved with the initials 'A.S.' and impressed with three conjoined shield-shaped marks from the town of Zeitz. Two of the marks bear the dates 1661 and 1670. This lid was not that originally belonging to this tankard.

Given by C. H. Campbell, Esq.

This tankard is part of a substantial and impressive collection of ceramics given to the Museum in 1921 by Colin Herbert Campbell (1887-1955), Chairman of the Minton factory and grandson of Colin Minton Campbell who in turn was the grandson of the founder, Thomas Minton.

The enamelled and gilded decoration on this salt-glazed stoneware tankard stands out so dramatically because a very dark brown slip was used to conceal the lighter reddish-brown of the stoneware beneath. The applied relief-moulded features, notably the busts of a man and woman, enhance the effect still further. Such work is traditionally ascribed to the Saxon town of Annaberg which lies in the mineral-rich Ore Mountain Range region (Erzgebirge). However, ceramic finds from excavations in Dippoldiswalde, about 80km. north-east of Annaberg, have now called into question this attribution.

C.301-1921