'Bonaparte Dethron'd': A rare Swansea (Cambrian Pottery) pearlware jug, circa 1814

'Bonaparte Dethron'd': A rare Swansea (Cambrian Pottery) pearlware jug, circa 1814 Printed in black and hand-coloured, titled 'BONAPARTE DETHRON'D April 1st 1814' around the neck, the body with an elaborate landscape populated with caricatures engaged in speech, the central figure of Napoleon 'Oh, Cursed Ambition what hast thou brought me to now', bound in chains and about to be dragged to fiery hell by a devil who beckons him 'Why to me Come, Come along thou hast been a most Dutiful Child', the print with indistinct signature of James Brindley, 16.5cm high Footnotes: Napoleon reluctantly abdicated on 6th April 1814. The potters of this jug evidently thought it more appropriate to align the occasion with All Fool's Day, thus further ridiculing the exiled enemy. James Brindley was an independent engraver who supplied copperplates to the Cambrian Pottery in Swansea. A smaller jug with the same design printed in red on a canary yellow ground was sold by Bonhams on 9 March 2005, lot 142. E Morton Nance illustrates a yellow jug and a hand-coloured example similar to the present lot, see Pottery & Porcelain of Swansea & Nantgarw (1942), plate LII, A-D. Other characters featured in the scene include musicians singing 'Oh, detestable Boney where are you now?', 'Down with Boney, Galloping Boney, Walloping Boney, Where are you now?'. A pair of children discuss 'Where is he going?', 'To Elba'. A Cossack addresses Napoleon 'What says Conscience now oh Boney'. A portly John Bull figure asks an emaciated man 'Where you one of those Confined under the gripes of Old Boney' and he replies 'Yes Sir, about 2 years ago I weigh'd 20 stone & you see what I am reduced to'. A seated Welshman holds a glass of wine marked 'PEACE', taken from a decanter marked 'PLENTY'. The man announces 'Be gone dull care'. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing