Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 191
A Liverpool (William Reid) cream jug, circa 1758
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£600 - £800
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A Liverpool (William Reid) cream jug, circa 1758
Moulded with rococo ornament and applied with an elaborate scroll handle, enamelled in a distinctive polychrome palette, one panel including a figure standing by a dog jumping up at a bird in flight, the other with a basket overflowing with flowers, foliate decoration and an insect around the foot and below the shaped spout, 10.5cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Simon Spero exhibition, 1991, no.11 (as Vauxhall)
Bunny and Paul Davies Collection, Simon Spero exhibition, 2013, no.9
Literature
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.350, fig.b
Exhibited
Hillis, Maurice and Jellicoe, Roderick, The Liverpool Porcelain of William Reid, 2000, p.21, no.32
Mary White illustrates the present lot alongside the very closely related Vauxhall jug, lot 190 in this sale. The forms are undeniably similar and most likely follow a saltglazed stoneware precursor, whilst being reminiscent of contemporary silver. Both jugs were also exhibited together in 2000, see Hillis and Jellicoe, 2000, p.21, nos.31 and 32.
A number of biscuit wasters and enamelled shards corresponding to the Reid jug were excavated at Brownlow Hill and are illustrated by Hillis and Jellicoe, 2000, p.38, pl.L. See also Maurice Hillis, Liverpool Porcelain, 2011, p.35, fig.3.34 and p.55, fig.3.94 for a very similar jug with polychrome decoration in chinoiserie taste, one panel including a little dog chasing after a bird akin to the present lot.