Kingsware was Royal Doulton's answer to a growing early 20th century taste for pub and drinking-related pottery, a dark treacle-brown glaze applied over relief moulding that gave the pieces a suitably tavern-appropriate warmth. This jug leans fully into that theme: one side carries John Barleycorn, the folk-song personification of barley and the drinks made from it, a figure who's been getting symbolically cut down and revived in English and Scottish song for centuries as a stand-in for the harvest and brewing cycle.
The other side carries a different kind of wisdom entirely, quoting Benjamin Franklin: "Would you know the value of money? Try to borrow some." It's a slightly wry pairing with a jug otherwise decorated around drink and folklore, and a reminder that Doulton's proverb wares often mixed genuinely disparate references rather than sticking to a single theme. The sterling silver rim is by George Betjemann & Sons, hallmarked for London, 1917.
