Enfilade

Regular readers may recall my irrationally exuberant affection for puzzle jugs. -CH

As noted at Art Daily (4 January 2014)

Delft Puzzle Jugs from Aronson Antiquairs of Amsterdam
60th Winter Antiques Show, Park Avenue Armory, New York, 24 January — 2 February 2014

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At the 60th Annual Winter Antiques Show in New York, January 23 – February 2, 2014, Aronson Antiquairs of Amsterdam will showcase an amusing collection of Suijgkannen or Delft Puzzle Jugs. “Delft Puzzle Jugs from the 17th and 18th centuries are among the most prized examples of the amusing novelty, but Delft examples were seen as early as 1650. The style gained popularity throughout Europe. Puzzle Jugs were designed with hollow rims and handles and diverting spouts and tubes. They challenged and entertained guests at both homes and taverns. You never knew if a dinner party would be a success and whether your guests would like the food and wine and have a good time. But with a variety of Puzzle Jugs on hand you could get a good laugh out of those trying their dexterity and luck by making a game of it,” says Robert Aronson, fifth generation Dutch Delft dealer of Aronson Antiquairs of Amsterdam.

Puzzle Jugs got their name from their ingenious design which could include a perforated neck, and hollow handle and rim. Sometimes as many as five or six concealed tubes or pipes were incorporated into the jug, making it even more difficult to imbibe the liquid, most often ale or wine. The trick was to drink the liquid without spilling the jug’s contents all over your shirt. It was common for tavern-keepers to offer these jugs in various drinking games, with guests wagering on who would master the puzzle. It helped to be highly dexterous and clever—itself a challenge during a night of merriment.

The oldest known, the Exeter Puzzle Jug, was produced in western France around 1300 and discovered in England in 1899. It was given to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, Devon. Many Puzzle Jugs had inscriptions on the body of the jug that ranged from simple to poetic, typically something along the lines of “Here gentlemen, come try your skill. I’ll hold a wager, if you will, that you don’t drink this liquid all without your spill or let some fall.”. . .

Highlights at the Aronson Antiquairs stand will include nine outstanding Delft Puzzle Jugs from a private collection including a Blue and White Delft Puzzle Jug from the Ten Tooren-Smith Collection, The Netherlands, which dates to 1760 and portrays an elegant couple on the body. The gallant gentleman is doffing his hat and approaching his sweetheart who holds a fan. The 22.8cm puzzle jug features a baluster-form body and panels of trellis diaperwork beneath the floral and foliate-pierced neck. The puzzle is in the tubular rim affixed with three nozzles which interrupts a flowering vine border continuing onto a hollow loop handle.

A second Blue and White Ring-Form Delft Jug dates to 1725–35 and features a circular body painted with a Chinese pheasant perched on a c-scroll forming the stem of a flowering leafy peony branch. It is pierced with three roundels, each centering a six petal flowerhead below three teardrop-shaped nozzles issuing from the tubular neck (24.4cm).

A third Delft Blue and White Puzzle Jug (23.4cm high) is from an earlier period, 1688–92, and was in Dr Gunther Grethe’s Hamburg Collection. Aronson says, “This jug has a GV mark in blue, probably is from Gijsbrecht Claesz, Verhaast. The spherical body is painted with a large insect and birds in flight above a chrysanthemum border. The cylindrical neck is pierced with three four-petal blossoms and eight dots against a foliate-patterned blue ground between floral borders, and affixed beneath the rim with a tubular device molded with seven blossoms, one of them pierced, and continuing into the flower and scroll-patterned hollow loop handle.”

Aronson says that the whimsical characteristics of Delft Puzzle Jugs appeal to collectors now because, “These are novelty pieces with amusing stories to tell that reveal how people lived centuries ago. Those who enjoy having a peek at what brought a smile to the face of our ancestors collect Delft Puzzle Jugs now. We are lucky to have acquired this collection of nine examples.” Prices range from $16,000 to $25,000.