knights, both mounted on horseback on the neck, and the stag-hunt below
them in a continuous zone around the body. In some respects the knight jug
found at Hatterboard, near Scarborough16 is a closer analogy
for the Dartford jug. On this jug both the knights are reduced to rod-like
bodies and neither is mounted; below the figures is a fingerprinted strip
round the bulge; and the rod handle is also grooved lengthways.
Differences between the two jugs are: a human figure on the front of the
spout instead of a stag, and structural details such as the conical neck
and plain rim. Although the fabric of the Hatterboard jug is not typical
of the Scarborough locality it is more likely to be the product of kilns
there than elsewhere.
Other centres making knight jugs were at Hailgate, Doncaster
and at Winksley, near Ripon.17 Until illustrations of
these jugs are published, detailed comparison is not feasible. However, at
Hailgate there is a tubular spouted jug with lateral face-masks and a
panel decoration on the body of straight and wavy strips, a partial
analogy for the strip on the Dartford jug.18
Among the knight jugs sent to other regions, that found in
Cambridge19 has several similarities to the one at
Dartford. On this jug the stag is also on the front with its antlers up
both sides of the spout, and the rod handle is grooved lengthways; but
both knights are mounted. The fabric differs
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from that of the other knight jugs mentioned above; it is grey and sandy,
and a source in the region of Lincoln has been suggested for this ware.
From this brief survey it will be seen that the 'knight'
style of figural decoration is, with certain variations, remarkably uniform
throughout the northern region. The differences relate mainly to the
knights, which are either mounted on horses, or reduced simply to rod-like
bodies; these forms can occur separately or together on the same pot, as at
Dartford. The stag-hunt varies from a complete scene with the stags attacked
by hounds (Nottingham) to the separate figure of a stag on the spout and
hounds at the sides (Cambridge) and finally to the stag alone in this
position (Dartford). These differences appear to indicate local variations
rather than chronological changes; as regards the skill and competence of
the potting, and the details of the figures and shields, there is little to
choose between any of these sources. It is not possible to say, from the
material at present available, that the knight jug style, like that of the
related face-mask jugs studied by Mrs. Le Patourel, 'originated at any one
of the places where
16 J. G. Rutter, Medieval
Pottery in the Scarborough Museum, 13th and 14th Centuries (1961), 16, fig.
2, no. 8.
17 Med. Arch., x (1966), 160-4.
18 Ibid., fig. 67, no. 2.
19 B. Rackham, Medieval English Pottery, London,
1948, pl. 12A.
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