Wedgwood Creamware Jug bearing 'A Map of the World from the Latest Discoveries' by WEDGWOOD - 1790

Staffordshire: Wedgwood, 1790. Spout has been abraded, small hairline crack to the rim, generally in very good condition.. Ceramic creamware jug with world map printed on two sides, stands 186mm tall with a diameter of 90mm;. Charming late 18th-century Wedgwood printed jug displaying a world map which includes recent discoveries in the Pacific and east coast of Australia. The jug was clearly produced after the third voyage of Captain Cook as the Hawaiian islands are marked on the map, which features Australia divided into New Holland and New South Wales, the latter still connected to Van Diemen's Land. An imaginary southern land is partially depicted as an incomplete island named 'Terra Australis' southwest of the Cape of Good Hope and directly south of Tristan de Cunha. New Zealand is depicted with the Cook Strait clearly marked, as are many of the smaller Polynesian groups such as Tahiti and the Solomon Islands. Both hemispheres of the world are adorned with allegorical neoclassical figures in dramatic poses including a New World Indian in the southern hemisphere, an African figure with resting lion and an Oriental maiden flanked by a camel. Wedgwood creamware was produced in Staffordshire from the mid-eighteenth century onwards and after slow acceptance by the market eventually became a huge commercial success for the firm. The map is a double-hemisphere type in a style typical of the end of the century as exemplified by Samuel Dunn's world map of 1787 or the map engraved by James Lumsden in 1785. This rare Wedgwood jug reflects the curiosity of late eighteenth-century Europeans for voyages of discovery at a time when the last remaining geographical mysteries were finally being resolved. It is a delightful record of contemporary discoveries in the Pacific and on the east coast of Australia.