This painted jug is inscribed on the bottom ‘View of Diamond Cottage Henbury 1820″. It was made of earthenware by the Bristol Pottery in Temple Back, and is decorated almost certainly by William Fifield, who is said to have worked at the pottery for about 50 years. A surviving trade card, dated 1820, in the V & A, and the fact that he signed some of his work suggests that he may have been partly independent of the company. He is mainly known for flower painting, but also did landscapes and portraits.

He was born in Bath in 1777, and was later apprenticed to a glass stainer. He was married to Mary Anne Moore at St Michaels, Bristol on 19 September 1813 — there may have been an earlier marriage. Mary Anne died in 1828 aged 35, and in 1841 William, described as a painter, was recorded as living at Stone Place, off Temple Backs with two of his (at least) 4 children. By 1847 at the age of 70, he had married again to Sarah White, who was in her early twenties. Four years later, the census shows him (this time described as an enameller of china), living at 7 Gough’s Court, again probably off Temple Backs, with his wife, now aged 26 and described as a pottery transferrer. William died on 14 August 1857 of acute bronchitis.

The jug cost £1,000 which The Friends paid in full.