BACKGROUND:
Unlike most of the chinaware's, ceramic's and porcelain that our family is seeking new homes for, this jug is not really part of my wife's collection, she had it passed to her by another family member and couldn't say no! While this jug does have some interesting aspects from a historical point of view, it really doesn't fit with her collection of fine china teasets and figurines from the late 19th & early 20th Century.
At it's most basic level, this is an earthenware jug which was intended to carry water - not such an easy task as the jug, when empty, weighs 1.25Kg and when full of water (4 Litres) it becomes a hefty 4.5Kg lift with one hand!
Wood & Sons were clever in that they produced earthenware that is now referred to as "Art Ware or Deco Ware" with many of their decorations featuring unique, visually interesting designs which were often in a semi-abstract Art Deco style - popular in the day.
To create these interesting designs, the company collaborated with the likes of Edward Radford and Charlotte Rhead, the design featuring on this jug was created by the latter artist having joined Woods & Sons in 1913 as Art Director. There is oodles of information online about Charlotte Rhead and the family influences that led her into the world of artistic design, I see no need to repeat all of that information!
Now your plain water jug becomes a 'work of art' and in many cases, owners would be showing it as a stand alone ornament without seeing a drop of water, some even being used as flower arrangement vases!
Here are some other gorgeous Wood & Sons creations by Charlotte EXCEPT the far right pair of vases which were designed by her Dad, Frederick ... this will give you an idea of the 'broad brush' they used in their creations!
All up, very smart business acumen at work here ... Wood & Sons knew how to produce great earthenware, then they dress it up with interesting artwork that hopefully would appeal to the buying public of the day. They seemed to have hit the right buttons and were (for a period) very successful, even to this day, Art or Deco Ware from Wood & Sons Ltd is very highly considered amongst collectors.
Visually appealing aspects of her designs are the colours (bright, vibrant but not overwhelming and with the use of specialised paints such as the Golden Brown's used on this jug - almost metallic in appearance. Very 'Art Deco' in design with extensive use of geometric shapes and her 'signature' Trellis series of designs is used on the jug. Finally, the method of application must be mentioned ... the artwork is not simply painted onto the surface but a technique (that Charlotte Rhead also made her 'own') of application called tube lining, think of someone who pipe decorates a special occasion cake, this method called tube lining is similar and this means if you run your finger over the artwork, you can feel that it is 'raised'.
This method of decoration was quite innovative but at the same time, had flaws ... this jug (unfortunately) does show those flaws and I explain in full detail further down in this lengthy description.
It should be realised that although Charlotte was producing Trellis designs back in her early days at Wood & Sons (mid 1920's ~ early 1930's) THIS jug is very unlikely to be from this period and is in fact from the period mid 1940's ~ late 1950's I am told by my wife. Of course Charlotte didn't hand decorate every single item about to be fired and she actively trained the Woods artists in her technique's - this jug is therefore a copy of her design, NOT AN ORIGINAL!
So let's get down (and boogie ...) with the information specific to this jug
WOOD & SONS LTD - Water Jug
Made in England
Trading name: Bursley Ware
Circa 1950's
Artwork was designed by Charlotte Rhead and applied using her tube lining technique
Life for this jug started as an earthenware blank, just a plain old water jug waiting to be dressed up
Impressed into the base is the code 6731 (or it could be 1731, difficult to read) and this is the basic jug product code
The Bursley Ware back stamp is printed on the underside in Black script
Near the company backstamp is the design code TL3 plus those 3 dots in a triangular shape would be the artist's 'mark' - to identify who undertook the decorative work.
You can also see near the Brown TL3 text (just above this text) is an area which I thought had some tiny writing ... I was wrong and in fact these are tiny (and I mean tiny) little discoloured crazing lines, not writing at all.
I have taken a photograph of the underside so that you can see clearly the features mentioned above.
So how large is this Water Jug?
I would describe it as being of a medium size but my Oh my ... so heavy when water is inside!
The mouth is 107mm x 90mm (oval in shape) with a broad, short pouring spout
Height is 250mm (almost 10")
Width in the centre of the bulbous body is 190mm (around 7.5")
As mentioned above, when empty, this jug is 1.25Kg (manageable) but when full of water (4 Litres) it weighs in at 4.5Kg - not an easy thing to carry around with one hand for any length of time!
The design ... visualise this (this is where you 'let your imagination run free ...')
You are looking at a Trellis fence, on top of which are various flowers. In a nutshell, this is the design ... with the Trellis (empty) dominating the lower 2/3 of the body and the remaining top 1/3 being the abstract-like Art Deco design comprising flowers (of course) and a multitude of geometric shapes.
Overall base colouring is a Tan~Vanilla colouring with the Trellis being a Chocolate Brown. Notice that there is one single line of Gold gilding in the border between the top of the Trellis and the artwork above. The artwork above is multi-coloured and of course has all been hand applied. The Brown~Gold almost Coppery colouring used for the handle and leaf shapes in the artwork looks almost metallic (but it isn't) and I get the impression that due to the high sheen, this could have been twice glazed and fired. It is all very interesting to look at and certainly interested me far more than endless "flowers or roses" used on the majority of English china or ceramic artworks!
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Yes, you have finally reached the most important section of this description ... what is the condition Russ?
NO cracks in the ceramic at all observed
NO chips to the ceramic observed
NO staining inside the jug - clean
NO crazing was observed (Wet or Dry) (Glazed externally and internally - entirely, even on the base) however there is that tiny spot on the underside which looks very much like a small circle of crazing (weird) ... I have double checked the jug for leaking and there is NONE.
BUT THERE IS A FLAW (actually three of them!)
Let's get the top 'arty' section out of the way ... it is fine, the artwork is not damaged here at all, this means no scratches, no missing colour or patchy colouring.
The single line of Gold gilding in the border area (mentioned above) is unbroken and unworn.
The Trellis has the problem though! Reminds me of my parent's old Trellis in NZ - Trellis's start to look a bit shabby after many years! But this Trellis artwork shouldn't look like this ...
I have been told that the person my wife received this jug from had moved and not packed this jug properly ... it apparently rubbed against a couple of other items and some damage resulted from this rubbing.
The damage is this ... in a couple of areas, the Trellis line work is 'broken' it's just not there and it should be. Think back to the cake decorating I mentioned above ... it is as though someone has taken a taste of the piped decoration (if it was a cake). The underlying ceramic is NOT damaged, just the Trellis line has gone "walkabout"
I have taken some photographs to illustrate this rubbing damage to the Trellis ... I count THREE small short lines which are broken, not terrible damage but damaged none-the-less.
Not much else to say about this jug ... except to explain that we are not a "profit driven" family, we actually CARE about all of the items my wife has or has been asked to look after. I see folks trying to hit people for A$300+ for one of these (all well and good for them I guess) but we are asking for a mere fraction of that sort of money AND shipping anywhere around Australia is absolutely FREE ... it's a thing we do for any orders that exceed A$75 in value
