An important and documentary London brown stoneware tavern mug dated 1740

An important and documentary London brown stoneware tavern mug dated 1740, applied with a punch party scene after Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation, above a shield bearing the arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, a further plaque of a bull about to be slaughtered, and another of a hunting scene, all above hounds and huntsmen in pursuit of a stag, incised 'Walter Vaughan of Hereford. His mugg must not be brock', small footrim chips, 23.5cm high.

Walter Vaughan was a butcher in Hereford. This mug is sold together with a photocopy of his will, dated 22nd November 1800, courtesy of the National Archives in Kew.

Illustrated: I E Hodgkin FSA and E Hodgkin, Examples of Early English Pottery: Named, Dated and Inscribed, p.167, no. 614. Listed in the collection of Harold Charles Moffat, of Goodrich Court, Herefordshire.