I thought the world ought to see my jug collection.
This one is my favourite – or at least, one of my favourites – because it’s the oldest. It’s a Worcester fence-pattern sparrowbeak jug, made about 1780, which means that Jane Austen might have used it. All right, so it’s not very likely. But can you prove that she didn’t? She took good care of it, anyway, since it isn’t chipped or scratched, though I've seen some similar jugs which have lids, so possibly she dropped this in her excitement at getting her first book deal. I do wonder where it had been all its life till I bought it in a rush of prodigality with some birthday money in 1997. Wouldn’t it be great if such things came with details of their previous lives?
It cost £190!!!! I still can’t quite believe that I paid that much for a jug that probably sold for about a shilling in its day. (I have no idea what it would have cost, really. But not a lot. It’s not handpainted; just transfer printed. But it’s quite old. And if anyone out there is an antiques expert and knows that it’s now worth £6.50, just keep this information to yourself.)
It cost £190!!!! I still can’t quite believe that I paid that much for a jug that probably sold for about a shilling in its day. (I have no idea what it would have cost, really. But not a lot. It’s not handpainted; just transfer printed. But it’s quite old. And if anyone out there is an antiques expert and knows that it’s now worth £6.50, just keep this information to yourself.)
The only other elderly jug is the blue and white one in the middle of the second top shelf, but this dates only from about 1900. I got it in an antique shop on the island of Arran, one of my spiritual homes. The big one at the bottom right used to belong to my mother-in-law. It’s Portobello pottery – Portobello being the part of Edinburgh where I spent most of my life, though not the last eighteen years - as is the one at the back at the left of the shelf above. I can’t quite think where I got that one, but it was in the early days of our marriage. All the others I just bought because I liked them, mainly but not all when we were on holiday, as souvenirs.
There’s something very satisfying about jugs – their solidity and roundness and also their usefulness. I do use some of them, though obviously not Jane Austen’s one.
But you really came to see a cat picture, didn’t you? So there it is. And here are some flowers.
Sedum in the Botanics.
Clematis in the Life garden...
... and some more fuchsias.
There’s something very satisfying about jugs – their solidity and roundness and also their usefulness. I do use some of them, though obviously not Jane Austen’s one.
But you really came to see a cat picture, didn’t you? So there it is. And here are some flowers.
Sedum in the Botanics.
Clematis in the Life garden...
... and some more fuchsias.
Have a good weekend.
