Early English Slipware Puzzle Jug, Bideford, North Devon.

Early English Slipware Puzzle Jug, Bideford, North Devon.

Inscribed with the traditional potters motto ; ‘ No art with pots can cumpare / we make hour pots of wat we potters are / Oct 10 1822 ‘ - A seemingly proud sentiment seldom seen on puzzle jugs.

The jug however has another dimension ; as well as being a practical puzzle in form, it in fact poses a pictorial puzzle for modern eyes decorated on the body of the jug.

The sun, moon and stars motifs are seen alongside a ladder, a well and tools that appear to be chisels, a hammer and dividers ; these implements hover above a double hexafoil or Daisy wheel.

The naive sgraffito composition would suggest a connection to stone masonry; perhaps the documentation of a stonemasons achievement for building wells. The striking hexafoil may suggest something more than secular geometry and indeed perhaps be a apotropaic sign.

The jug is curious in its story telling and symbolism - it is as far as I know an unrecorded type ; a puzzle jug in more ways than one.