Jug

Dateca. 1725

OriginEurope, Germany, Westerwald, Höhr-Grenzhausen

MediumGrey salt-glazed stoneware

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-254

DescriptionGray salt-glazed stoneware jug with cordoned neck highlighted in manganese purple. The handle is pierced at the top to allow for a lid to be mounted. The body is incised with bands of decoration that are picked out with cobalt blue including two bands of checkerboard decoration, a band of interwoven lines and two bands of molded acanthus leaves. An applied GR badge is positioned directly opposite the handle. The GR is topped by a crown and sits above a winged cherub.Label TextVessels of this type were made in the Westerwald region of what is now Germany from the mid-seventeenth century through the eighteenth century. Made for export to England and her colonies, the Westerwald potters targeted their market by incorporating the initials of the English monarch into their designs. "GR" stands for George Rex, or King George.
---Inspiration and Ingenuity: American Stoneware
Exhibition curated by Suzanne Findlen Hood at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, February 2007Inscription(s)GR on applied badge (stands for George Rex, King George)