Past Imperfect, The Art of Inventive Repair

This large transferware water jug dates from the mid-1800’s and was made in England by William Ridgway. It is decorated with the “Amoy” pattern, an exotic blue & white Chinoiserie design. It had a matching basin and was part of a larger wash set that would have been found on top of a bedroom washstand

Jug measures 13″ tall

Chinoiserie (“Chinese-esque”) decoration was quite popular in Europe since being introduced by the French in the 17th century. Playing with scale, it employs asymmetrical images of an imaginary China, its popularity peaking by the middle of the 18th century

Marked in cobalt blue “AMOY W.R.” on the bottom

When the original handle snapped off, a large metal handle with thumb rest and finger grip was strapped on to make the jug functional

This blue & white transfer jug has a simple handle; most likely the same shape was on my jug

Photo courtesy of Country Living

Tags: blue & white, English, metal handle, pottery, transferware

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 4:34 pm and is filed under jug. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.