NELSON JUG.
Portrait of Admiral Nelson, inscribed "England expects that every man will do his duty." On reverse, female figure and children, inscribed "Behold the Widow casting herself and Orphans on benevolent Britons."
(In the collection of Miss Feilden.)
NELSON JUG.
With portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson. Aged 47. Inscribed "England expects every man to do his duty." On reverse, plan of Battle of Trafalgar.
The transfer-printed jugs and mugs with nautical subjects we have already alluded to in a previous chapter. The unfamiliar uniform of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century "Jack Tar" is a study in costume. This silent ceramic world of old three deckers and ships of the line and barques and brigantines is all that is left of a fleet of ships which have long since sailed their last voyage—an armada of non-existent craft as ghostly as the phantom ship of Vanderdecken.
Nelson jugs are of many types; we illustrate two varieties ([p. 459]). Some of them are as early as 1797, and others as late as 1820.
The top jug illustrated is of Staffordshire cream ware, and is in date after Trafalgar (1805), made to commemorate this victory. The portrait of Nelson has an inscription over it, "England Expects every Man to do his Duty." On the reverse is a plan of the Battle of Trafalgar with the disposition of the ships and a slight description which ends in the sentence "in which Action the Intrepid Nelson fell covered with Glory and Renown."
The lower jug is of the same period and the portrait of Nelson is more authentic. It is transfer-printed, the uniform being slightly touched in colour. On the reverse there is a female figure and two children, and the sad human touch in the inscription, "Behold the Widow casting herself and Orphans on benevolent Britons." This is, indeed, the reverse of the medal. The glory of war is exalted unduly. But the awful reality does not always come home so pointedly as in this homely jug, which in its way records the "simple annals of the poor." We are reminded of the lines of that forgotten poet, Amelia Opie, and of the wood-engraving by Dalziel in Willmott's "Poets of the Nineteenth Century," published in the sixties. "The Orphan Boy's Tale," who tells how pleased he was—
"When the news of Nelson's victory came,