Skip to main content
A very rare 'Fiddler' Toby Jug and cover from the 'Midshipman Family', circa 1785 image 1
A very rare 'Fiddler' Toby Jug and cover from the 'Midshipman Family', circa 1785 image 2
Lot 39*

A very rare 'Fiddler' Toby Jug and cover from the 'Midshipman Family', circa 1785

15 December 2020, 14:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £35,250 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our British Ceramics specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

A very rare 'Fiddler' Toby Jug and cover from the 'Midshipman Family', circa 1785

Attributed to Jacob Marsh, seated and playing a violin, wearing a brown frock coat with applied ochre epaulettes, his shoes and breeches picked out in brown, his green waistcoat partially unbuttoned to reveal a white necktie, his long hair secured at the back with a distinctive tied ribbon, a formal border around the brim of his hat, a large jug resting on the ground beside him, 17.6cm high (2)

Footnotes

Provenance
Mackintosh Collection, Sotheby's sale, 2 May 1967, lot 54
Sotheby's sale, 18 October 1988
James and Timmey Challenger Collection, Chicago

Illustrated by Sir Harold Mackintosh, Bt, Early English Figure Pottery (1938), p.39, no.91 and by Vic Shuler, Collecting British Toby Jugs (2nd Edn, 1994), p.110 where it is described as the most expensive Toby sold at auction at the time of writing. This lot is one of two 'Fiddlers' owned by Mackintosh, the other was sold by Bonhams on 5 June 2019, lot 110. Mackintosh considered them as a pair despite differences in colouring and the placing of a large jug to the left of the Fiddler in the present lot.

A single mould was used for many of these smaller 'Midshipman' jugs. Common features include a distinctive necktie and partially unbuttoned waistcoat as well as the curious ribbon used to secure the hair at the back. The epaulettes on the shoulders may have been positioned there to secure a good join during the firing process. Vic Schuler, Collecting British Toby Jugs (3rd Edn, 1999), p.56 lists eleven recorded small-sized 'Fiddler' jugs. This lot appears to be the only example which retains its original cover.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Royal Worcester 'Painted Fruit' vase and cover by William Ricketts, dated 1911