| Description
| Thrown stoneware mallet-shaped 'Free Masons' whisky jug with matt bluish glaze and pale buff coloured body. Bell shaped, tapering to long cylindrical neck with swelling waist. Incised bands encircling neck. Band of roulette jewelling on upper and lower walls. Masonic symbols applied to walls. Image of a man with a pipe sitting on a barrel and drinking. Barrel has words on it; 'YOU MAY / TALK ABOUT / INCOME TAX / BUT GIVE ME / XX'. Other decorations are an image of three men sitting at a table (the 'midnight modern conversation') and fleur-de-lys. Believed to be made by the Caledonian Pottery - no maker's marks.
The Caledonian Pottery was founded in 1800 in the north of Glasgow, making items ranging from porcelain and creamware to stoneware and bricks. It is particularly know for producing a range of stoneware items and for teapots with a brown Rockingham glaze – the Ru’glen Broon. In 1872 the pottery moved to Rutherglen, a town to the east of Glasgow. In 1898 it was bought by the jam manufacturer W.P.Hartley to supply stoneware jam jars, but after the introduction of glass jars the pottery closed in 1928. Items may be marked with Townhead Pottery, Caledonian, Murray & Co, M & Co, Murray & Coupar, M & C, Murray & Fullarton, M & F or Murray. |
