Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Jug, grey stoneware, slightly inset base with rounded footrim, globular body tapering to a tall cylindrical neck that tapers gradually to the rounded slightly out-turned rim, small pointed lip, long straight vertical handle with flat top; decorated round the body and neck with moulded decoration in low relief: six oval panels round the body, a band of flattened ovals and circles below, round the neck six repeated tall angular motifs linked elongated curved motifs suspended between them, impressed lines on the handle, two turned lines round the foot, all impressed parts of the design painted with blue enamel.

This jug’s abstract geometric pattern is typical of Jugendstil, the German equivalent of the Art Nouveau style. The jug was possibly made by being thrown inside a mould carved with the design. It may originally have had a pewter lid. In the late nineteenth century Gerz was one of several Westerwald potteries producing stonewares in the German Renaissance style. The Paris Centennial Exhibition of 1900 made it clear that their products were out of date. They engaged leading avant-garde architect-designers, who injected a modern spirit into their designs.