Description:
English delft puzzle jug with the inscription: "Here gentlemen Come try yr Skill,/ Ile hold a wager . if you will,/ That you don't drink this liqr all,/ Without you Spill or let Some fall,". Puzzle jugs were used for a drinking game where a drinker would attempt to drink from the jug without spilling a drop, a difficult task given the multiple holes and pierced neck. The ring at the top with its three spouts is hollow and joined to the bottom of the jug through the hollow handle; there is also a hidden hole under the handle. A drinker had to cover the hidden hole along with two of the spouts so that the hollow handle acted as a siphon and drew the liquid out through the third spout, thus avoiding the pierced neck. Delft puzzle jugs were popular in both northern Europe (where Germany's Westerwald area provided the stoneware prototypes for delft copies) and England. The earliest dated English puzzle jug is 1653; and English examples of this most common version of a drinking rhyme date from 1732 to1784. Pierced decoration is not as common on delft as on other English earthenware, and is more frequently found on puzzle jugs and bowls than on dishes. This form of heart-shaped perforations and interlocking circles is common to Liverpool examples, but is also known in other pottery centers. The earliest use of the term puzzle jug is not known, but it is an accepted one among modern scholars, and a 1774-dated slipware example, probably from Yorkshire, bears the inscription "A Pusling Jug". Entries indicating humor at drinking events (and perhaps referring puzzle-type vessels) appear in estate inventories from Pasquotank County, North Carolina: a 1760 reference to a "Laughing Mug" and one in 1779 to a "laughing jug." The jug has a high cylindrical neck pierced with flower petals shapes outlined in blue; over three blue bands separating the neck from the bulbous body and three blue bands over the flat base. The rolled rim and tubular loop handle are decorated with blue scrolls, with small flower petals and short lines along the side of the handle. The handle terminal is flanked by two floral sprays.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2000.64 |
