A wonderfully evocative antique Cadbury’s Bournville Cocoa advertising jug, dating to the early years of the 20th century, circa 1900–1920.

Made in substantial glazed stoneware, the jug has a warm buff-brown body contrasting with a rich chocolate-brown glazed neck and upper handle – an unusually appropriate colour scheme for its subject.

Around the shoulder, in raised white lettering, is the wonderfully direct advertising instruction:

MAKE DRINKING CHOCOLATE WITH BOURNVILLE COCOA

The front carries the early Cadbury signature beneath a stylised cocoa plant/tree picked out in white. A narrow moulded rope or beaded band separates the body from the darker neck.

The form is particularly attractive: a generous rounded body, pronounced pouring lip and long looped strap handle. It has the slightly handmade, robust character associated with commercial stoneware of the period rather than later mass-produced advertising ceramics.

Approximately 14cm high.

The underside is unglazed and shows the concentric marks of manufacture together with a small impressed mark. No manufacturer's name is apparent.

An excellent piece of British advertising history, with crossover appeal to collectors of Cadbury, chocolate and confectionery advertising, antique shop display, kitchenalia and early 20th-century English pottery. It would also look extremely good simply displayed in a kitchen, café or chocolate shop.

Condition: Please study the photographs, which form part of the description. There is one tiny shallow chip to the edge of the base.

Dating

c.1900–1920” 

Price strategy