Besides these, more homely vessels occur as publicans’ signs at the present day, which it requires no stretch of imagination to understand the meaning of, as the Pitcher and Glass, the Brown Jug, the Jug and Glass, the Bottle and Glass, the Foaming Quart, &c. At Newark the Bottle is accompanied by the following inscription:—
“From this Bottle I am sure
You’ll get a glass both good and pure,
In opposition to a many,
I’m striving hard to get a penny.”
The Pewter Pot, an old sign, is thus alluded to by Randle Holme.[560]
“This should be looked upon by all good artists to be the most ignoble and dishonourable bearing; but as the custom takes away the sense of dislike, so the frequent use takes away the dishonour, which is seen by those[388] multitudes that have it for their cognizance, in so much that it is painted over their doors by the wayside.”[561]
The Pewter Pot, in Leadenhall Street, was a famous carriers’ and coaching inn in 1681. There are also the Six Cans, in High Holborn, (a sign evidently suggested by the Three Tuns;) and, in the same locality, the Six Cans and Punchbowl. This last object, the Punchbowl, was introduced on the signboard at the end of the seventeenth century, when punch became the fashionable drink; in one instance, at Penalney Kea, near Truro, we have the Punchbowl and Ladle, but most generally it is found in combination with other very heterogeneous objects. The reason of this is that punch, like music, had a sort of political prestige, and was the Whig drink, whilst the Tories adhered to sack, claret, and canary, connected in their memory with bygone things and times. Hence it followed that the punchbowl was added as a kind of party-badge to many of the Whig tavern signs, and hence such combinations as the following, all of which still survive at the present day:—
The Crown and Punchbowl, Somersham, St Ives.
The Magpie and Punchbowl, Bishopsgate Within.
The Rose and Punchbowl, Redman’s Row, Stepney, and elsewhere.
The Ship and Punchbowl, Wapping.
The Red Lion and Punchbowl, St John’s Street, Clerkenwell.