Antique English which is both large in size and large in Impact

THE STORY - On a recent trip to one of my favourite antique shops in Kent there was a box with recently acquired stock which had not yet gone on the shelves and amongst all the other items my eyes instantly focused in on this mug, the colours just shone out at me and then when I held it I knew it was coming home with me. The mug is pearlware and I believe would date to circa 1830, it is as I said large and is cylindrical in shape and is decorated in the popular Chinoiserie style of day with a panel front and back of a gentleman on a bridge fishing, but it is that Royal Blue that I find amazing, it is so strong and just grabs your attention. The two pictures are so lovely I I just adore the face of the gentleman on the front of the mug with no beard it is so naive, I think they must be overpainted transfers, but there is a looseness to the brush strokes outlining the mens faces and the urns that confuses me, they could be freehand but surely the fretwork on the bridge has to be transfer printed. The mug carries no markings apart from a painted number on the base and I have to say the way it is decorated with that Royal Blue glaze does not bring to my mind any other examples from particular potteries, I am pretty certain it is English but from which part of England I am unsure. And I adore the handle the shape and use of the brush marks in that honey coloured yellow paint to emphasise its movement. The same coloured paint is used for the two urns sitting either side of the gentleman as they fish and that pattern of swirls in between the two panels. And there is something that I love about the use of the Royal Blue with the Chinoiserie decoration and that is like it is an acknowledgement of a bringing together of two cultures as I believe the colour royal blue was invented for the wife of King George III, Queen Charlotte after a competition was held to design a dress worthy of her.

AGE - Circa 1830

CONDITION - The mug is in very good condition with no chips or cracks that I can see, there is however light crazing to the glaze. The glaze on the inside of the mug is much more dark yellow in tone than my photo portrays, it is almost as if some of that honey yellow paint has been mixed in with the glaze. Around the bottom of the mug there is some light markings on the glaze it is not peeling off but it gives that impression, best seen in the first three photos.

DIMENSIONS (Approx) - Height 3&1/2" / 9cm, Diameter at Rim 4" / 10cm, Diameter at Base 4&1/4" / 10.75cm, Width from Side to Handle 5" / 12.75cm

I have found this mug to be wonderfully illusive in trying to pin down not just its history but even the process of its creation. I still find myself grabbing the magnifying glass to peer at the brush strokes on the paintings but once I free myself from that and sit back and just enjoy its beauty then I find myself not caring but just appreciating that it has been made the way it has.