Prattware Meat Paste Jar ‘Venice’ No. 84

Victorian

Circa 1860 | England

An antique Victorian Prattware meat paste jar with a decorative transfer print of Venice. This lovely earthenware jar is as attractive today as it would have been to customers in Victorian times (see The Gen). It’s printed on a white base with a gorgeous print of Venice running all the way around the jar.

DIMENSIONS: Height 8 cm, Width 7 cm.

SIGNATURES, MARKINGS & INSCRIPTIONS: Unmarked.

CONDITION: In good condition, with wear commensurate with antique age and use of such a piece. It is complete but heavily stained, with hairlines coming down from the lip in several places and crazing. These all add to the history of the piece and wonder of the stories it could tell.

REFERENCES: For an example of a similar jar see The Price Guide to Pot Lids and Other Underglaze Colour Prints on Pottery, A. Ball, 1970, The Antique Collectors Club, p. 76.

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THE GEN

“The great industrial surge of the Victorian era opened up a whole brave new world of commercial art. Jobbing printers and typographers suddenly enjoyed an unprecedented freedom as the new manufacturers began to realise the bonanza powers of advertising. By the early 1800’s the traditional typefaces of the 18th century were swept aside and printers crowded their racks with bold and fancy new faces. The advertising artists had the time of their lives experimenting with untried forms and daring new designs.

Although the materialism of the Industrial Revolution, with its middle class cravings for extravagant ornamentation (especially in furniture and architecture) had contributed much to the bankruptcy of Victorian taste, it was to engender the first Golden Age of package and print. For the next three quarters of a century a wealth of printed ephemera –labels, tickets, posters, trade cards, signs, decorated tins, pots and containers–flowed from the presses and potteries. All manner of domestic products were sold in bright new wrappers, often flattering to deceive.” (The Advertising Art of Printed Pot Lids, Roger Green and David Lewis, Old Bottles and Treasure Hunting, 1979, p. 7)

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