It cannot be determined whether this mug, with its pure cylindrical form and loop handle, is copied from an eighteenth-century piece. There is no mug at Williamsburg of this exact form and size, nor is there any record of Thorley borrowing one to copy. It is most likely that Thorley designed this form based on his knowledge of eighteenth-century shapes and proportions. An eighteenth-century vessel of this shape would not have been cast in a mold, as this was, but rather thrown on a wheel, the handle either shaped by hand or pressed in a small, separate mold and then attached. The decoration on this mug is reminiscent of the ware he designed or adapted while he was designer at Allerton Ltd., Longton, England, from about 1924 until 1927, when he immigrated to the United States. (See Austin, “Thorley, Part 1,” pp. 179–81, figs. 31–34.) Thorley used the pink luster again during his latter days of production.
Unless otherwise noted, the illustrated items in this article were made by Palin Thorley, Williamsburg, Virginia, and are in the author’s collection.