Fergus Gambon
Director
Lot 75*
A very rare 'Farrier' Toby Jug from the 'Midshipman Family', circa 1785
23 June 2021, 10:30 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £16,500 inc. premium
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A very rare 'Farrier' Toby Jug from the 'Midshipman Family', circa 1785
Attributed to Jacob Marsh, seated and holding a glass in his raised left hand, an empty jug tucked under his right arm, wearing a sponged blue and brown frock coat, brown shoes and a light blue apron applied over his breeches, a set of pincers resting on his lap, his partially unbuttoned waistcoat left in the white and his hair secured with a distinctive ribbon, a brown and ochre border around his tricorn hat, the plain handle incised with two parallel lines, 15.9cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Sotheby's sale, February 1989
James and Timmey Challenger Collection, Chicago
Illustrated by Vic Schuler, Collecting British Toby Jugs (Third Edition, 1999), p.58. Only four examples of 'Midshipman Family' Toby jugs representing a 'Farrier' were recorded at the time of writing.
The maker of the distinctive 'Midshipman' family of Toby jugs was identified when a 'Lord Rodney' from this group was sold by Phillips on 29 November 1989, lot 305a. This was inscribed on the base 'J Marsh, Folley' A previous example of Lord Rodney, sold from the Mackintosh Collection, was also inscribed 'J.MARSH FOLLEY', although when the Mackintosh collection was catalogued the place name had been incorrectly transcribed. The potter had attempted to sign his jugs with the place name Foley, which was a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, lying between Longton and Fenton. Jacob Marsh is recorded as a potter in Burslem in 1803, moving to the Lane Delph Pottery in 1806. He is listed in 'The History and Gazeteer and Directory of Staffordshire' in 1834 as 'Jacob Marsh of Golden Hill House, (Foley) gent'. Marsh's longstanding connections with Foley leave little doubt as to the maker of this rare group of Toby jugs.
