A rare Lambeth brown salt-glazed stoneware jug dated 1783

modelled by Robert Brettingham de Carle, of barrel form with bearded mask spout, applied around the sides with hop swags and fruit and flower filled cornucopiae above the date 1783 within a cartouche of wheat and barley, signed R. B. De Carle, Fect. on a simulated metal strap across the base of the handle, incised Lambeth underneath the base. Minor haircrack.

According to Robin Hildyard, op. cit., pp. 46-47, no. 81, De Carle hailed from an East Anglian family of masons and sculptors. He is said to have worked for Mrs Coade in Lambeth, exhibited waxes in 1785 and died in 1791. This jug is one of a small group all of similar type. An example in the Victoria & Albert Museum, inscribed 'James Sowerby' and dated 1781 is illustrated by Hildyard, op. cit., who also mentions another, inscribed 'John Samuel Clack, born Jan. 16th 1781' in a private collection, illustrated in the Connoisseur Vol. 3, 1902, p. 269. A third example with the applied initials 'W C' for William Curtis, and also dated 1781, belongs to the Hampshire County Museums, and is illustrated by Adrian Oswald, R. J. C. Hildyard & R. G. Hughes, op. cit., p. 59, fig. 24.