Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Mug, pale creamware with a finely crazed greenish-yellow glaze, cylindrical, spreading slightly to the base and standing on a very shallow foot rim, ribbed ear-shaped loop handle; painted in red and black with an inscription within a four-lobed panel with a hatched shell and floriate scroll border, a running fox above; the lip edged in pink.

This beer mug was made to commemorate Sir Watkin Williams Wynn's successful election campaign for the Denbighshire seat in 1774. It is painted in deep red and black enamels with the inscription `Long life to / Sir W. W. Wynn,/ Let this Noble / Health go Round / 1774'. Sir Watkin probably distributed these mugs among his supporters, so they could raise a toast to his good health and success. The fox scampering across the top of the mug is taken from the Wynn family coat of arms.