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2025-116, Tankard
Tankard
2025-116, Tankard

Tankard

Dateca. 1793
Engraver
OriginEngland, Staffordshire
MediumLead-glazed earthenware (cream-colored earthenware / creamware)
DimensionsOH: 4 15/16"; OL: 4 3/4" (including handle); OD: 3 3/8"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2025-116
DescriptionStraight-sided cream-colored earthenware (creamware) mug or tankard with single extruded ear-shaped handle applied opposite the transfer printed decoration. Transfer printed in black with an image entitled the “MASSACRE & EXECUTION of LOUIS XVI. KING of FRANCE.”: a circular reserve encloses a depiction of the beheading of Louix XVI by a guillotine shown at the center of the image. A key to the image is printed in black below the image and the title and reads: "Jany. 21. 1793. Aged 38 Years 4 Months—An Event most Wonderfull in the History of the World / 1 the Guillotine—2 The Ax 3 The King—4 De Fermand His Confessor—5 One of the Executioners / Drawing up the Ax immediately after the Execution—6 the other Executioner holding up the Head / of the King & proclaiming Behold the Dead of a Tyrant—7 The Basket for the Head—8 The long Basket / for the Body—9 De Santere the Commandant General—10 The Way by which the / unfortunate Monarch ascended the Scaffold—". The print is signed at the top of the circular reserve in printed script “J Aynsley / Lane End”.Label TextObjects such as this mug recount the death of Louis XVI by the recently invented guillotine. Based on a print published in “The Wonderful Magazine & Marvellous Chronicle or New Weekly Entertainer” (1793) after an original drawing by M. Le Brun, the engraving on the mug relayed in clay a key event followed worldwide. The Virginia Chronicle of March 30, 1793, reported the death of Louis XVI. The issue was almost entirely devoted to discussions of the French Revolution and that nation’s views of liberty. Newspapers up and down the eastern seaboard relayed the story of the French monarch’s demise, presented translations of his final statements, and discussed the dilemma associated with the French upheaval. Two sides presented themselves--to support the French monarchy since it had supported the American cause, or to support the French populace in their plight for liberty as it shared similarities of the American colonists’ only a few years prior.Mark(s)The print is signed at the top of the circular reserve in printed script “J Aynsley / Lane End”.Provenance2025, Martyn Edgell (Peterborough, England); June - October 2025, purchased by Robert Hunter (Yorktown, VA); October 2025 to present, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)