Jug, shape no. 2096

Based in England’s Staffordshire potteries district, William Brownfield & Son(s), a large manufacturer of stoneware, earthenware, and porcelain, produced majolica of outstanding quality throughout the 1870s and 1880s. In 1872, the firm hired Louis Jahn (1839–1911) as its first art director. Jahn, born in Germany, was one of several Continental artists who first came to England to work at Minton & Co., and he was instrumental in directing Brownfield’s product expansion. Like other well-capitalized Staffordshire firms, Brownfield employed celebrated freelance sculptor-modelers such as Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887) and Hugues Protât (born 1816; active 1835–90) to design objects for both general production and exhibition display, shifting the firm’s reputation for moderately priced, useful domestic wares (which were crucial to its success) to what one contemporary reviewer deemed “the highest region of fine art in ceramics.” The export trade was an important part of Brownfield’s sales strategy, and to that end, the firm advertised extensively and participated in the international exhibitions of the period.

From the mid-1870s onward, the firm’s repertoire of useful jugs and ewers in traditional shapes began to include more ornate and decorative majolica pieces, which often took inspiration from Renaissance and Asian art and design. This model’s lively design of intertwined fish that form the body of this jug draw upon Chinese and Japanese precedents that have been combined, perhaps somewhat discordantly, in with a handle more reminiscent of European prototypes in its scrolling and foliate details.

Brownfield regularly chose to copyright its designs by registering these models with the British Designs Registry. This government entity was created by the United Kingdom’s 1839 Designs Registration Act, which protected manufacturers from unauthorized copying of “ornamental” designs that were registered. As part of submitting a design for registration, a manufacturer had to include a “representation” of the design, often a drawing or, as time went on, a photograph. These representations are now preserved at the UK’s National Archives and provide an invaluable source of information about Victorian design. Brownfield registered this jug design on January 9, 1879.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

William Doyle Galleries, New York, “American Furniture & Decorations; Majolica,” 19 November 1997, lot 214; purchased by Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, 1997; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2025.