A Liverpool Transfer-Printed Creamware 'George Washington / By Virtue and Valour' Pitcher

Likely Herculaneum Pottery, England, Late 18th Century

one side with a portrait of George Washington surrounded by allegories of Justice, Liberty, and Victory, within a chain of fifteen states; the opposite with a full-length Washington standing on a lion, symbolizing British defeat during the American Revolution, and text reading, By virtue and valour, we have freed our country, extended our commerce, and laid the foundations of a great empire.
with monogram WS and spread-winged eagle transfer under the spout.
Height 9 1/2 inches.

A near-identical example is found in the permanent collection of George Washington's Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon, Virginia (M-5839).

Literature:

Washington portrait inventoried as W.29 and illustrated p. 202 in David and Linda Arman's Anglo-American Ceramics, Part I: Transfer Printer Creamware and Pearlware for the American Market, 1760-1860, Oakland Press: Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1998.

'By Virtue and Valour' transfer inventoried as B.10 and illustrated p. 72 in David and Linda Arman's Anglo-American Ceramics, Part I: Transfer Printer Creamware and Pearlware for the American Market, 1760-1860, Oakland Press: Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1998.