Important Worcester ‘Dutch’ jug or Cabbage leaf moulded Jug, Painted by James Rogers, Circa 1757

An extremely rare and very important Worcester ‘Dutch’ jug or Cabbage leaf moulded Jug, of globular form with straight-sided cylindrical neck, moulded all over in crisp relief with cabbage leaves, beautifully painted by James Rogers with a host of different birds, including: two partridges in the foreground, a kingfisher in flight overhead, with two billing doves perched on the gnarled stump amongst leafy branches on, and between which, further birds perch and fly, before a river landscape including characteristic ash trees and a tall farm house with high gabled roof, before distant purple headed mountains, beautifully framed underneath with an elaborate purple rococo scrolled device, on either side of the host of birds fly ducks, pheasants, a woodcock and many other colourful European birds, the rim of the neck moulded in relief and picked in colours with small cabbage leaves on a shagreen ground framed on either side with purple scrolls, the double scrolled handle with a sprig of scarlet pimpernel and further scrolled flourishes.

The importance of this Dutch Jug in the canon of the Rogers style is very clear indeed. The painting of the birds, the leaves on the trees where some birds perch and the treatment of the painting of the bark are undoubtedly the same hand as the mug signed by James Rogers, which is in the British Museum. It is signed I. Rogers Pinxit 1757. See International Ceramics Fair and Seminar Exhibition Catalogue 1987, p. 45 no. 49. For a full discussion of the work of James Rogers, the principal enameller at the Worcester factory between circa 1757-1765 and for other pieces in the British Museum collection attributed to him, see H.Tait, ‘James Rogers, a leading porcelain painted at Worcester, c. 1755-1765’, Connoisseur, vol.CXLIX, no. 602, April 1962.