Cream Jug

Operating from Hanley in the heart of the Staffordshire potteries district, John Adams & Co., later Adams & Bromley, was one of the most commercially successful English majolica manufacturers. Beginning in 1864, and for nearly thirty years, it supplied a diverse range of high quality, reasonably priced majolica tableware, flowerpots, and garden seats to the growing middle-class markets in the UK and abroad. Most of the company’s original partners, including John Adams (1827/8–1900) and John Bromley (1829–1915), began their careers at Josiah Wedgwood & Sons.This early experience impacted the course of their business, informing the design and decoration of the goods they manufactured which primarily focused on majolica and dry-bodied stoneware similar to Wedgwood’s jasperware. The company participated in several world’s fairs and exported its production widely, including to the vital American market.

Victorian popular culture sometimes inspired the shape and decoration of majolica. This cream jug with its accompanying teapot in the form of a fish devouring another fish (WAM 48.2968.1), might be a humorous representation of natural selection, a central tenet in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which he set out in his book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. The whimsical nature of these well-modeled designs also likely appealed to a significant group of the middle class consumers that were the major focus of the Adams & Bromley firm. Indeed, the significant number of examples of the teapot model that can be found on the secondary market today underline its appeal this design held at the time.

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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 247; purchased by Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, 1997; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2025.