Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 23
A Yorkshire pearlware frog mug from the 'Portrait Group', dated 1781
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,000 - £1,500
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A Yorkshire pearlware frog mug from the 'Portrait Group', dated 1781
Of cylindrical form with a broad turned foot and strap handle, painted in blue with an elegantly dressed gentleman raising a mug and holding a long pipe, seated in a garden before a tripod table upon which rests a jug, inscribed 'W and S/ Peace' and '1781', the reverse inscribed 'God prosper all/ I take in Hand/ & send me fortune/ to the end', a diaper border below the rim, an ochre frog modelled crouching inside, the base inscribed 'God prosper/ &/ Man Drinking/ P/ W.S' in blue, 12.2cm high
Footnotes
Literature
Roberts, Lois, Dated in Blue, 2011, p.48, no.58
White, Mary, Drinking at the Whites' House, Vol.2, 2021, pp.94-5, fig.b
This charming mug belongs to a distinct group of wares known as the 'Portrait Group', all of which bear dates between 1776 and 1782 with one later possible example dated 1790, see Lois Roberts, 2011, pp.129-31. All are decorated in underglaze blue, usually with figures, and sometimes with a gentleman and lady seated at a table. All are personalised and all have a summary of their inscriptions written sketchily in blue to their bases. Whilst a Leeds origin has been suggested for this important group as four pieces bear names of places within 20 miles of Leeds, Mary White suggests that they may instead be the result of a cottage industry and that the sketchy inscriptions on the undersides may represent aide-mémoires for the decorator made at the time the orders were placed. A 'Portrait Group' mug dated 1782 which features a very similar seated gentleman is illustrated by Roberts on p.57, no.78 and was sold by Bonhams on 18 April 2012, lot 42 (part), clearly painted by the same hand responsible for a polychrome creamware jug also dated 1782 in the same sale, lot 43. The same distinguished gentleman features on a loving cup dated 1780 and a jug dated 1781, illustrated by Roberts on p.43, no.45 and p.47, no.57 respectively.