Seth Pennington or Barnes & Cotter Liverpool Porcelain Sparrowbeak Jug c1785

Description

Heading : Seth Pennington or Barnes & Cotter (Liverpool) Porcelain Sparrowbeak Jug
Date : 1780-1790
Period : George III
Marks : none
Origin : Liverpool
Colour : polychrome on white ground
Pattern : known as “The Crafty Angler’. we see two oriental characters separated by a bridge and a tree; one carries a fishing rod and the other stands to attention with what would appear to be a pair of large marshmallows on a stick. ready for toasting…
Features : Single groove to handle

Condition : Excellent; no chips. cracks or flakes with the exception of a tiny. un-separated crack under the glaze to the upper terminal of the handle; sporadic and very small under-glaze inclusions; enamels bright with no scratches
Restoration : none
Dimensions : 9.8 cm tall – 8.4 cm tip of spout to rear of handle – 7.0cm diameter body at widest point
Weight : 106 grams

References: Liverpool Porcelain 1756-1804 (Hillis; 2011) pages 501-505; Hillis makes a cogent argument that. rather than Seth Pennington. this piece may be attributable to the Haymarket Pothouse of Messrs Barnes & Cotter (also in Liverpool). but his exhaustive research does not settle on a definitive identification; unfortunately. we have nothing to add to this at present – other than that there are constituent parts of the design which indicate that it could be from either source. rather than specific to one or the other…

The author also repeatedly refers to pieces of this nature. with similar dimensions. specifically as ‘milk jugs’.