Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Large jug, creamware, clear glaze clouded with blue from the painted decoration, pear-shaped body, standingon a prominently moulded foot and short stem, folded spout, and bifurcated and ribbed strap handle with acanthus scroll terminals; elaborately painted in underglaze blue with a band of linked quatrefoils and ovals to the stem, the body inscribed at the front 'Joseph Vaughan Melyngriffy / Success to Admiral Rodney / His Majestys Navy / 1781' within a large recessed oval cartouche of flowers and foliage and painted at the back with two large bouquets flanking the handle, waved band at the neck containing a cell pattern washed in underglaze blue and reserved with leaf scrolls, a blue scale pattern, also washed, to the spout, two small floral sprigs at the lower ends of the handle.

This large, round-bellied beer jug is painted with the inscription `Joseph Vaughan Melyngriffy / Success to Admiral Rodney / And His Majestys Navy / 1784'. It is said to have been commissioned by Joseph Vaughan and his cousin, founder of the Belckow-Vaughan Ironworks in Middlesborough, who toured Wales in 1781. The jug commemorates the victory of Admiral Rodney and their kinsman, General Sir John Vaughan, over the Dutch and Spanish fleets at St Eustatius in the West Indies.