Description:
English creamware baluster-shaped jug with strap handle and pointed spout, decorated with two black transfer prints (bat-method), The Virtuous Woman" and "The Upright Man," adapted from prints published by print and map seller Carington Bowles (1724-1793) in 1784 and 1785. This jug is a wonderful example of objects made to instruct the moral and ethical choices of people in their daily lives, with vignettes illustrating the results of straying from the correct path. Both transfer prints have a central circular section divided into three parts by a compass and a female figure under the pivot of the compass in one design and a young man in the other, both in rural landscapes, and illustrated activities to fit each sex in the four spandrels. The side with the woman's figure has the inscriptions: "Fear God / Attend Unto This Simple Fact As Thro' This Life You Rove / That Virtuous & Prudent Ways Will Gain Esteem & Love"; "Bridle My Will"; "Remember thy End"; "The Virtuous Woman / Is A Crown to Her / Husband."; and the signature "Josh. Johnson" on the right. The four spandrels indicate the fate of the woman who does not keep within the compass: a woman looking over her shoulder as she takes a drinking cup from a high cupboard; a woman sitting at a table while two candles burn; a woman breaking flax before an overseer; and a woman being led to jail by two men. The side with the man's figure has the inscriptions: "Fear God / By Honest And Industrious Means We Live A Life Of Ease / Let The Compass Be Your Guide & Go Where Eer You Please"; "Bridle My Will"; "Remember thy End"; "The End of The / Upright Man / Is Peace;" and the signature "Josh. Johnson" on the right. The four spandrels indicate the man's fate by not keeping within the compass: a man seducing a woman while seated on a sofa in a parlor; a man drinking in a room which has a racing print hung on the wall over his head; a man staring out through a barred window of a jail cell; and a shipwreck with several men moving around the shore. The signature of Joseph Johnson of Liverpool has been found on ten or more prints transferred to creamware (also "Josh Liverpool" on a Colonial Williamsburg pot with the same scenes), some of which have the signatures of the Liverpool engravers, Richard Walker and Richard Abbey (1754-1819), joined with that of Johnson. Richard Abbey was apprenticed to John Sadler (1720-1789) and Guy Green (w.1750-1799) from 1767 to 1773 when he opened his own business as an engraver and printer in Liverpool, working as a freelance engraver to the trade; it is possible that Johnson also trained as a printer with Sadler and Green. However, there is no other information known about Joseph Johnson other than his name appearing in connection with pottery printing on late Liverpool and Herculaneum-associated pottery. A somewhat shadowy figure, Joseph Johnson, was a printer of creamware. Although he signed some of these pieces J Johnson Liverpool it would seem that he was actually located in the small town of Newburgh, some 15 miles away. He died in 1805. Guy Green also produced a similar versions of these scenes on Wedgwood creamware.These two prints -often referred to as Keep within Compass - outline a moral framework for a successful union and life. The Birmingham painter Samuel Lines (1778-1863) attested to their popularity, calling that he frequently saw the mottoes on the walls of farmhouses and cottages.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2002.61 |
