A Victorian Silver-Mounted Glass Cockatoo Claret Jug, William Leuchars & Sons, London, 1881

This characterful piece demonstrates how quickly a good idea could travel in the small world of London silver manufacturing. William Leuchars & Sons were dressing case and novelty retailers at 38 & 39 Piccadilly (and 2 Rue de la Paix, Paris). The design for a "cockatoo" jug (with the crest down) was registered by Alexander Crichton of Crichton & Curry on December 19, 1882, no. 391662. However, John B. Hawkins documents at least two examples of "crest down" cockatoo jugs dated 1881, suggesting they may have put the design into production a year earlier in 1881, and only registered it at the end of 1882 - and here we have a Leuchars marked crest-down cockatoo jug of 1881.

A similar thing happened with the "crow" model claret jugs, which Crichton and Curry registered in December, 1881; Leuchars poached the idea from their Oxford Street rivals, came up with their own form, registered it, and put it into production within weeks - underlining the importance of novelty for the luxury retailers of Victorian London's West End. Leuchars even seems to have purchased from Crichton, as Leuchars' mark appears on a Walrus jug of 1882 and a Drake jug of 1882, both certainly made by Alexander Crichton; in fact the latter has Leuchars' mark on the body, but Crichton's mark on the head (John B. Hawkins, Alexander Crichton, Through the Drinking Glass, nos. 17 and 21A).

The date underlines that all of this is happening within the first year of figural claret jugs: Crichton & Curry first registered a figural example with the "owl" jug of August, 1881.