Objects
Jug
Alcohol
Consumption
Gifting
Inferred
[Description from holding collection]
Vessel made in London
This type of early English tin-glazed ceramic imitating the form of imported Rhenish salt-glazed stoneware is known as Malling ware. The name is taken from a silver-gilt-mounted pot of 1581 used for many years as a communion vessel.
The earthenware jug has a bulbous body and a cylindrical neck and is covered with a mottled mauve glaze. A plain ring mount is attached to the foot by engraved foliate tongues. There are plain rings around the base of the body and neck, each with similar engraved foliate-tongue borders, joined by three vertical straps with similar borders and a narrow applied strip down the centre of each strap. The raised flat top cover is shaped to a point opposite the handle and engraved with the arms of Miller of Wrotham, Kent within a foliate mantle. The tankard has a bifurcated and reeded thumbpiece and a plain S-scroll handle.
The arms are those of Miller of Wrotham, Kent. The younger Nicholas Miller mentioned in the inscription married Anne, daughter of William Style of Langley, Buckinghamshire. He was knighted in 1658.
Inscription: Fragile hoc poculum, emptum per me fuit A Dnj. 1618. et mox Proavunculo meo Nicolao / Miller Ar datum. Qui diem claudens extremum A 1621 aetatis suae .85. id. inter / caetera memoriae tam digna mihi reliquit ut nisi ingratus essem, non / recordare non possum. Nicol: Miller Milit Junij 12. An. 1658 Aetatis suae. 65.
Translation: This fragile cup was bought by me in A. D. 1618 and soon after given to my maternal great-uncle Nicholas Miller Esquire, who, concluding his last day in the year 1621 at the age of 85, bequeathed it to me together with other things so worthy of note that [, without being ungrateful, it is not possible to record them. Sir Nicolas Miller, June 12th A.D. 1658 aged 65] [translation in square brackets missing from catalogue entry]
Production
Dates of Production: circa 1600
circa 1658
London, England
Consumer
Nicholas Miller
male
English
85
Recipient
Gentleman
Consumption
exact 1618
exact 1621
Wrotham, Kent, England
Materials
Earthenware
Metal- silver
Metal- plate
Museological Details
Jug
V&A museum
LOAN:GILBERT.583-2008
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