Frechen jug

A salt-glazed stoneware drinking jug with cylindrical neck, grooved strap handle, globular body and pedstal foot. There are cordons around flat base is marked with concentric grooves. The unmarked silver mount covering the rim and neck is decorated with strapwork, grotesques, flowers and clusters of fruit and rosettes.

The form is a typical product of the Frechen industry which was the most widely traded of all German stonewares. The practice of adding precious metal mounts to even the most modest undecorated Rhenish stonewares was a particular feature of English middle-class material culture during the mid to late 16th century. Mass-produced mugs were the first to be treated in this way, but thereafter the most common types of import singled out for this kind of embellishment were the Frechen drinking jugs. The mounts were mostly supplied by London goldsmiths. The discrepancy between the cost of the undecorated stonewares (a few pence) and the cost of the precious metal mounts (a minimum of £1, rising to £2 or £3) is demonstrates the regard with which Rhenish stoneware was held at this time.