Credit Line Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; The Buten Wedgwood Collection, gift through the Wedgwood Society of New York, AFI.2905.2008
Signature On the underside impressed with the initials BR for designer Frederick Brett Russel (1813-1869)
Marks On the underside impressed WEDGWOOD and D with the impressed registry mark for 1867 and the three letter code MIV for 1867, with the incised designer's initials BR for Frederick Brett Russel and four dark blue dots
Inscription Around the jug reads, WHAT THO MY CATES BE POOR, TAKE THEM IN GOOD PART, MAY YOU HAVE BETTER CHEER, BUT NOT WITH BETTER HEART, from Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, Act 3, Scene 1
Provenance Wedgwood (est. 1759), Stoke-on-Trent, England, 1867. St. Georges Gallery, London, England, prior to 1962; purchased by Harry and Nettie Buten, Merion, Pennsylvania, in 1962 [see note 1]; inherited by their children Max, David, Beatrice and Iris Buten, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; by gift to the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, in 2008
1. The jug was part of the Buten Museum of Wedgwood in Merion, Pennsylvania, from its acquisition by the Butens until the museum closed in 1988 at which time it was transferred to the Nassau County Museum Systems in Sands Point, Long Island, New York, as a long-term loan. It was removed to Birmingham in 2008 along with the rest of the Buten collection.
