Can u read this please

from an old puzzle jug , I cannot make out the second word , any ideas Please ?

Reads - Drinke ??????? And Make ye Merrie

Looks like 'drink acome and make ye merry' to me

Also meant to add nice jug, have you been digging these up as you do seem to be finding a lot of these old pieces lately

Yes I have loads in the back garden , seriously I bought this one on ebay , the other at an antique fair , they just intrigue me , they are so naive and rustic and usually damaged but I love them , thanks for acome suggestion , it's difficult looking at old handwriting .

Just a thought if that's an "M" why has he put a long tail on it and not the other M's ?

Signed John Bdir ( Bird?) 1742

Just my opinion, but for artistic intent to match the long tail in the ye.

I like the look of them too, don't you wish they could talk-the things they could tell us.

I do think its an old poetic way to say come and have a drink and get merry : )

John Bair

Yes i thought maybe Bair As well , he seems to dot his "I's"

Or Bain

or john bair or baw... but john bair stands out.

thanks Sunny

ed i know this jug's are called harvest jugs, but what would you call this jug? is it harvest puzzle jug? in as much is very old.

Sunny it' a called puzzle jug , harvest jugs are a little different , but lots were from the same period , it's the writing I am trying to work out as it was so different to the language we understand today .

Barr seems more likely if you compare the rr in Merrie

cheer's ed :)

I would go for "Drink deepe and make ye merrie". The country artisans who made these old puzzle jugs and harvest jugs were mostly illiterate. He might well have been copying someone else's writing on a piece of paper without knowing if what he was scratching on the jug was correct and legible or not. This would account for the general wobbliness of the writing and the strange shapes of some of the other letters.

Maybe 'drink deep and make ye merrie'?

and the prize goes to climberg

R and f was before me to be fair

Ok , someone else also says Drinke Deepe , so ta to R&f & climberg , I couldn't see it at all , but Iv'e found it used in shakespeare plays , thanke ye all kindely

Cheers!