This magnificent antique Victorian English sterling silver jug has a plain tapering cylindrical form onto a circular spreading foot.
The body of the jug is embellished with magnificent engraved foliate decoration, incorporating two large cartouches.
Each cartouche bears two putto* style figures, one holding a thyrsus** and the other playing a musical instrument.
This exceptional jug retains the original double stepped flat topped, hallmarked cover surmounted with a magnificent and rare cast silver thumbpiece, realistically modelled in the form of a lion couchant.
The cover is encompassed with impressive engraved stylised fruiting vine and foliate designs, accented with simple paralleling borders.
This large antique silver jug with lid is fitted with a cast silver S scroll handle embellished with exceptional scrolling leaf decoration to the handpiece and sockets.
The magnificent cast sterling silver spout displays an array of scrolling foliate decoration to the underside, all on a matte background.
The interior of the jug and underside of the cover retain the original gilding.
This magnificent lidded jug is the finest of its type you could hope to acquire.
* In art and culture, a putto (plural: putti) is a chubby male child, usually nude and occasionally bearing wings.
** Thyrsus - A fennel staff tipped with a pine cone and twinned with ivy - carried by Dionysus/Bacchus (the God of the grape harvest, wine and winemaking).
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Maker: Richards & Brown (Edward Charles Brown)