Hand made Owl Jug, is it pot or is it copper?? no marks,

Todays charity shop find. I bought it thinking it a nice studio jug, (I like jugs!). On closer inspection the base is scuffed with wear and reveals a shiny copper effect to the glaze. The decoration, graffito style looks to be done with a hot implement and is melted rather than scratched. The inside is grey glazed but the very top edge is left unglazed and appears to be stoneware. What is it and who made it? It is very well made.

Several studio potters & production potteries made these owl jugs through the 20thC, the most famous, imo, being Farnham Pottery. Not their usual glaze, and unmarked, so possibly one of the studio potters.

I am genuinely unsure of what it is made of. It is almost as if it is stoneware with a copper metal glaze. The handle appears to be attached as if part of the body, like pottery, but the outside of it is like copper, complete with a greenish tinge. I have seen a couple on Google, one being by Liberty and co and made of pewter, another by Farnham. An interesting find for a fiver!!

Yes good find. He looks like part of a production as that handle looks very even. The owl jugs were so popular that many potteries seem to have made some, someone will know. Pity he's not marked.

Denby also made them of course.
Bretby did pottery with a copper finish.
A scrape with a knife or a file on the foot should reveal if it's metal or not.
Could it be a master for making moulds from?

My son thinks it is definitely pottery, but the glaze is as if it has been painted with copper paint. I have taken close up shots of the wear on the foot and it shines like fresh copper.

I have just found one that was sold by Baggott Church Street Limited, described as "copper clad", Arts and crafts pottery ale jug, code 1763. This could be the very thing that I have!!

Is that not a retailer not a maker?

I would call it copper lustre glaze unless it's electroplated. They don't seem to know who made it; it just has a general description.

Before we go any further, we need to ascertain if it is pottery or metal.

I have had a very close look at he picture, (Google images, Arts & Crafts pottery owl ale jug). and it is almost exactly like mine, right down to the number of Sgraffito scratch marks. The one pictured is very shiny as if it has been polished up with metal polish. It looks horrible like that, prefer mine, a nice dull patina!

denbydump wrote:Before we go any further, we need to ascertain if it is pottery or metal.

I think mine is pot! But coated in a very copper rich glaze.

May I suggest that as long as the pot is clean, touch your tongue to the copper-coloured area. If you get a similar metallic taste to that of a copper coin then it's likely copper, if not, not.

But remember since 1992 British copper coins are no longer copper as the copper in a 2p coin was worth more than 2p

originally made from 97% copper, hence the nickname and colour. This was mixed with zinc (2.5%) and tin (0.5%). However, in 1992, the composition of these two coins was altered dramatically; current ‘coppers’ consist of 94% mild steel (which itself is an amalgam of iron, carbon and manganese) with just 6% copper, primarily to give it the colour, in order to save on production costs.

Good point well made. I vaguely remember reading about that years ago when I noticed that some of my 'coppers' had stuck to a magnet in my pocket. I had thought for about a second or two that I'd got counterfeit coins, then my brain pointed out the futility of counterfeiting pennies and two pences.
There's no mistaking a metallic taste like copper, though. A glaze shouldn't have any noticeable taste as firing stabilises it (otherwise dinners would taste a lot different), so the lick test is either a metallic tang or nothing at all.