H. Blairman & Sons Ltd

Designed by Henry James Townsend (1810-90)
Manufactured by Minton & Co. (1796-1968)

Stoneware, moulded in relief
Height: 15.8 cm
English (Stoke-on-Trent), circa 1848

‘No. 336′ (within a moulded ribbon), ’80 D’ and ’12’ (incised)

Private collection

A buff-coloured example of this pattern was acquired by the V&A in 1855 (540-1855).

The jug, entitled ‘Present / The Two Drivers / Past’, is an elaborate updating of a traditional object.  Townsend conceived the design for Felix Summerly’s Art Manufactures, the short-lived pseudonymous firm created in 1847 by the design reformer Sir Henry Cole (1808-82).  The decoration contrasts coach travel (the past, 1800) with steam travel (the present, 1848), illustrating the changes with realistic, and typically Victorian, story-telling zeal.

The ‘Two Drivers’ jug was first made in around 1847 in white stoneware with a brown background (model no. 295).  This was followed by a single-coloured stoneware version in pale buff (model no. 335, as at V&A), and in reddish brown (model no. 336, as here).  The model was illustrated in the Journal of Design and Manufactures (December 1849).

Cundall & Addey, 21 Old Bond Street, London included the ‘Two Drivers’ beer jug in their Catalogue of English Art-Manufactures (n.d.); the smaller size, as here, was priced 6s.