Milk Jug thumbnail 1
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Milk Jug

ca. 1775 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
Black teas were more popular in Britain than green teas by the date that this jug was made. Like coffee, these fermented black teas were usually drunk with milk or cream and often sweetened with sugar. In comfortably-off household, afternoon and after-dinner tea and coffee were generally served by the lady of the house.

Materials & Making
The Lowestoft factory, where this jug was made, manufactured a type of porcelain strengthened with ashes from animal bones. The result was a comparatively durable ceramic material, one that would have been suitable for tea-drinking utensils and other utilitarian wares.

Trading
Lowestoft porcelain was sold from a wholesale warehouse in Lowestoft itself and by a London agent. Tea and other wares with personal inscriptions could also be ordered from the factory. According to a visitor to the factory in the 1780s, about half its output was exported to The Netherlands, and from there to France, where it was sold as 'Porcelain des Indes'.

Design
The dragon pattern was popular at several English porcelain factories, including Bow, Worcester, Lowestoft, Vauxhall and Liverpool, between the 1750s and the 1770s. The English factories probably originally copied the pattern from the painting of an early-18th-century Chinese dish.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Porcelain painted with underglaze blue
Brief description
Milk jug of porcelain painted with underglaze blue, Lowestoft porcelain factory, Lowestoft, ca. 1775.
Physical description
Milk jug of porcelain painted with underglaze blue. Pear-shaped with a loop handle. Painted with a dragon.
Dimensions
  • Height: 12.3cm
  • Diameter: 8.6cm
Dimensions checked: Registered Description; 01/01/1998 by KN
Gallery label
(27/03/2003)
British Galleries:
CHINESE PORCELAIN and its imitations

English factories copied a vast number of designs from Chinese imports. The design on this Bow mug was probably taken from a Chinese dish similar to the one displayed here. Factories also copied the designs of their English rivals. The design on the Lowestoft jug may have been based on an English copy of a Chinese design.
Credit line
E. F. Broderip Gift
Production
Date given by John Howell in 1981
Subject depicted
Summary
Object Type
Black teas were more popular in Britain than green teas by the date that this jug was made. Like coffee, these fermented black teas were usually drunk with milk or cream and often sweetened with sugar. In comfortably-off household, afternoon and after-dinner tea and coffee were generally served by the lady of the house.

Materials & Making
The Lowestoft factory, where this jug was made, manufactured a type of porcelain strengthened with ashes from animal bones. The result was a comparatively durable ceramic material, one that would have been suitable for tea-drinking utensils and other utilitarian wares.

Trading
Lowestoft porcelain was sold from a wholesale warehouse in Lowestoft itself and by a London agent. Tea and other wares with personal inscriptions could also be ordered from the factory. According to a visitor to the factory in the 1780s, about half its output was exported to The Netherlands, and from there to France, where it was sold as 'Porcelain des Indes'.

Design
The dragon pattern was popular at several English porcelain factories, including Bow, Worcester, Lowestoft, Vauxhall and Liverpool, between the 1750s and the 1770s. The English factories probably originally copied the pattern from the painting of an early-18th-century Chinese dish.
Bibliographic reference
Young, Hilary. English Porcelain, 1745-95. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1999. 229p., ill. ISBN 1851772820.
Collection
Accession number
C.811-1924

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Record createdDecember 2, 2002
Record URL
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