Images(10)

"Success to the Brave Tars of America / Flowing Can" Jug

Dateca. 1800

OriginEngland, Liverpool

MediumLead-glazed earthenware (cream-colored earthenware / creamware)

DimensionsOH: 7 7/8"; OL: 7 7/8” (handle to spout); OD: 5 3/4" (body at widest point)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, Gift of Kay Wilkinson in honor of Colin and Nancy Campbell

Object number2025-141

DescriptionJug: creamware jug of baluster shape with curved sparrow beak spout opposite a plain extruded ear-shaped handle. Transfer printed in black on one side with an oval cartouche containing a print of an obelisk memorial to George Washington with a portrait bust of the President above “G. WASHINGTON” and “Brn 14th Feby 1732 / Obt 14 Dec 1799”; a bowed eagle and a mourning woman at the foot of the memorial. An arched banner above the cartouche with “WASHINGTON IN GLORY.” and an arched banner below the cartouche with “AMERICA IN TEARS”. The other side transfer printed in black with a circular cartouche enclosing a scene of a tavern scene of a sailor dancing with a woman in the foreground, two figures seated at a table in the background to the left of the dancing couple, one playing a fiddle and the other holding a punch bowl with a ladle, the table with a wine glass on it; several figures in the doorway to the right of the dancing couple, one man is smoking a pipe and raising a barrel-shaped tankard; he stands in front of kissing couple. Above the cartouche is a floral swag tied in the center with a bow above the phrase: “SUCCESS / to the brave TARS of AMERICA”. Below the cartouche is, “THE FLOWING CAN.” Transfer printed in black below the spout is the Great Seal with 16 stars and 16 stripes on the shield.Label TextTaken from the operetta “No Song, No Supper,” the song “The Flowing Can” was included in a variety of popular patriotic tune and verse books published in Philadelphia and it was printed in newspapers in numerous cities in early America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Variations of the print from which the decoration on this jug is drawn date as early as 1791.

The inclusion of the transfer print "Washington in Glory / America in Tears" on the opposite side of the jug and the image of the Great Seal below the spout dates this piece to around 1800.Inscription(s)Transfer printed in black on one side with an oval cartouche containing a print of an obelisk memorial to George Washington with a portrait bust of the President above “G. WASHINGTON” and “Brn 14th Feby 1732 / Obt 14 Dec 1799”; an arched banner above the cartouche with “WASHINGTON IN GLORY.” and an arched banner below the cartouche with “AMERICA IN TEARS”. The other side transfer printed in black with a circular cartouche and above the cartouche the phrase: “SUCCESS / to the brave TARS of AMERICA”. And below the cartouche is, “THE FLOWING CAN.”ProvenancePrior to 2023 TBD. March 2023, sold [Clevedon Sale Rooms, Bristol, England]; 2023 - 2025, [Martyn Edgell Antiques, Ltd., Peterborough, England] December 2025-present, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)