A National Medieval Treasure Stolen from Local Museum.
A few days ago the Wenlok Jug was stolen from the Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton. The bronze vessel from the late 14th century was acquired by Luton Museum in 2005 for £750.000 raised by foundations and gifts. The jug had been put up for sale at Sotherby’s, but a temporary export ban provided the possibility to acquire the jug, which had a decidedly local provenience.
The bronze jug measures 31.5 cm in height and weighs 6.1 kilos and is decorated with coats of arms. It bears the inscription “My Lord Wenlok”, hence the name of the jug. It is believed the jug was made for either William Wenlock, who died in 1391 and was canon at St Paul’s Cathedral, Archdeacon of Rochester and a canon in the King’s Chapel, Westminster. However, it might also have been given to his great-nephew John, the first Lord Wenlock, who was a major figure in the fifteenth century serving every king from Henry V to Edward IV. Both figure in the medieval guild register in Luton and lived there.
The Luton jug is peculiar in another sense: It belongs to an exclusive group of three jugs, similar to each other but with different inscriptions and sizes. The other two jugs belong to the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
It is believed that all three ewers were made at the same workshop, probably in London and probably for the Royal Household. However, what they were used for is unknown. All three are simply too heavy to pour from; either they have served in a purely decorative manner or they have been used with ladles. They were all cast by pouring molten bronze into two-part moulds as was standard practice, but radiography done by the British Museum revealed features that link the jugs together more closely, perhaps to the same foundry, though not necessarily at the same time.
The Asante Jug
The one in the British Museum, the so-called Asante Ewer, is the largest measuring 43 cm in the height, weighing 18.6 kilos and with a capacity of 15.8 litres. The Asante ewer is different I colour and details and has a lid. (The others have the remains of hinges on the rim where their lids were once attached). On the front of the jug are the Royal arms, which were current between 1340 and 1405.
From the description at the homepage of the British Museum it appears that the neck of the jug is decorated by six roundels, containing falcons spreading their wings. Around the belly of the jug is an inscription, which reads: He that wyl not spare when he may He shal not spend when he would Deme the best in every dowt Til the trowthe be tryid owte (‘He that shall not save when he can , Shall not spend when he wants to. Suppose the best in every fear Until the truth is known’).
Because of the lid, this ewer has been dated to the final years of the 14th century. Each of the seven facets of the lid contains a lion facing left, and a stag lying down. The use of these devices, place the manufacture firmly in the last years of the reign of Richard II, who used this symbol between 1390 and 1399.
The Robinson Jug
The second of the three jugs is exhibited at The Victoria & Albert Museum and has been dated to the same period. As opposed to the Asante jug, which was found in Africa, this one was found in a manor house in Norfolk.
The size of this jug is slightly smaller, weighing 9.9 kilos and measuring 38.5 cm in the height. The inscription runs like this: ‘+ GODDIS GRACE BE IN THIS PLACE AMEN. + STOND UTTIR FROM THE FYRE AND AND LAT ON IUST COME NERE”. This translates as “God’s grace be in this place, amen. Stand away from the fire and let just one come near.” Some of the letters on this jug have been placed upside down and may indicate illiterate craftsmen.
The Wenlok Jug
This ewer is the smallest of the three jugs measuring only 31 cm. in the height. Also the inscription is much shorter: “My Lord Wenlok” (Hence the name). Basically it shows the same decoration as the other two jugs, although it also has a mark from the workshop. If it did indeed belong to the first Lord of Wenlok, who died at the battle of Tewksbury, it is peculiar, that it did not figure in the list of valuables, which he left in the safekeeping of the Abbot of Glastonbury before the battle in 1471.
The theft
After the theft serious doubt has been raised about the wisdom of lodging a national treasure of this character at a local museum of the size of the Wardown Park Museum and its affiliate: The Stockwood Discovery Centre. The question is whether such local institutions have the expertise to care for such an object as well as the economic strength to guard it in times of economic hardship, where local councils are pressured to economize and museums are demanded to be outreaching and event-fixated; which indeed is the profile, the Luton Museums wish to signal. Since the acquisition by the museum the jug has played a major role in the profiling work of the museum. For instance youth groups and school children have been invited to make clay replicas of the jug, which has served as a popular symbol for the local community. As opposed to this the homepage lacks a proper description of the jug; a job which has been allocated to Wikipedia.
The article is indebted to the information posted on the webpages of The British Museum and The Victoria & Albert Museum.
The Robinson Jug at Victoria & Albert
Another jug sold at Christies in 2011
Read about the use of such ewers in the royal household of Richard II
Museums Association deplores the theft and the lack of security at local museums
Read more:
British Late Medieval Inscribed Bronze Jugs: a stylistic study. By Michael Finlay. In: The Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, 4, June 1996, pp. 1-1