Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Jug, grey stoneware, brown salt-glaze, rounded ribbed foot in a pewter mount, short stem, baluster body, the lower part carved with straps and lapetted rosettes below a columned arcade containing three quarter-length figures of the Seven Electors holding their coats of arms; 1. Archbishop of Trier, 2. Archbishop of Cologne, 3. Archbishop of Mainz, 4. The Holy Roman Emperor as King of Bohemia, 5. Count Palatine, 6. Duke of Saxony, 7. Margrave of Brandenburg, shoulders carved with rosettes, tall neck spreading at a shaped ribbed lip with a lion mask below the spout, strap handle with grooved tapering terminal, stepped domed cover, hinged, with a collared bead finial and thumbpiece (upper part missing).

The jug in the centre of this image was made at Raeren, near Aachen. It has a rich brown salt-glaze on a grey body. Around the side is an applied moulded arcade enclosing three-quarter-length figures of the seven Electors, the German princes who chose the Holy Roman Emperor. Each holds his coat of arms, identified in German as follows: 1. Archbishop of Trier, 2. Archbishop of Cologne, 3. Archbishop of Mainz, 4. The Holy Roman Emperor as King of Bohemia, 5. Count Palatine, 6. Duke of Saxony, 7. Margrave of Brandenburg. The jug has the moulded date 1602, but could have been made a little later than this. It was formerly in the great collection of Renaissance works of art formed in Prague by Adalbert von Lanna (1836-1909) and later acquired by the diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher (1850-1912).