
Here's what the text has to say about this drinking mug:
An English writer in 1579, spoke of the English custom of drinking from "pots of earth, of sundry colors and moulds, whereof many are garnished with silver, or leastwise with pewter." Such a piece of stoneware is the oldest authenticated drinking jug in this country, which was brought here and used by English colonists. It was the property of Governor John Winthrop, who came to Boston in 1630, and now belongs to the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. It stands eight inches in height, is apparently of German Gresware, and is heavily mounted in silver. The lid is engraved with a quaint design of Adam and Eve and the tempting serpent in the apple-tree. It was a gift to John Winthrop's father from his sister, Lady Mildmay, in 1607, and was then, and it still now, labelled, "a stone Pot tipped and covered with a Silver Lydd."I found some more about this mug/jug in a February 2010 blog post by Ellen Denker on Sawdust & Dirt. The post is a review of the 2009 book "Salt-Glazed Stoneware in Early America." And one of the pieces of stoneware featured, with a photo, is the Winthrop Jug.

Rambling footnote
1. "Home Life in Colonials Days" was originally written and published in 1898. This edition, by The Macmillan Company, was once property of the Hanover High School Library, as evidence by the stamp on the title page.

I have been especially enjoying the chapter Food from Forest and Sea, in which I learned that salmon and shad were "lightly regarded in colonial days," so much so that "farm laborers in the vicinity of the Connecticut River when engaged to work stipulated that they should have salmon for dinner but once a week." No, instead of salmon and shad, the most valuable fish of the period was cod. And the finest tables had the finest dun-fish (codfish cured in a particular manner, so as to be of a superior quality) upon them for Saturday's meal.
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