Porcelain -- Collectors and collecting -- United States; Pottery -- Collectors and collecting -- United States
Another mug owned by the same gentleman has a map with a caricature of
Napoleon Bonaparte standing with one foot on Germany. The other foot,
having been placed on England, has been cut off by John Bull, who says,
“I ax pardon, Master Boney, but, as we say, Pares of Pompey, we keep
this spot to ourselves. You must not dance here, Master Boney.” Napoleon
is saying, “You tam John Bull, you have spoil my dance, you have ruin my
projects.” A second Bonaparte mug has a red print of John Bull sitting
upon a pedestal, inscribed “The British Constitution.” He looks across
the Channel at Napoleon, who is weeping and crying out, “O! my poor
Crazy Gun Boats, why did I venture so far from home,” while John Bull
says, “I told you they would all be swamp’d, but you would be so Damned
Obstinate.” The inscription is “Patience on a Monument smiling at
Grief,” with this distich:
“The Mighty Chief with fifty thousand Men
Marched to the Coast and March’d back again.
Ha! Ha! Ha!”
A third Bonaparte mug is thus described in _Notes and Queries_:
“Under a trophy of arms are figures of John Bull and Napoleon. John
Bull is in the act of striking his opponent with his right fist a
severe blow on the nose; the nether end of Napoleon is at the same
time in collision with sturdy John Bull’s left boot. Inscription,
‘See here John Bull drubbing Bonaparte!’ On either side of the
picture we have,
‘What! to conquer all England how dares he pretend,
This ambitious but vain undertaker,
When he knows to his cost that where Britons defend,
He’s unable to conquer one Acre!’
‘If your beggarly soldiers come among us, they’ll soon have enough of
it; and, damn me, if any ten of you shall have my person or
property—so be off!’ ‘Damn ye! you black-hearted, treacherous
Corsican! if you were not such a little bit of a fellow in spite of
your large cocked hat, I’d crack your skull in an instant with my
fist.’”
Another bears these short and pointed lines:
“May England’s oak
Produce the bark
To tan the hide
Of Bonaparte,”
which, though shaky in rhyme, are certainly more effective than the
illiterate, profane, and overlong inscriptions on other Bonaparte mugs.
A well-engraved and well-designed Liverpool print is that of “The
Farmers’ Arms,” with armorial design ingeniously formed of hay-rakes,
scythes, flails, ploughs, churns, sickles, etc., the mottoes being “In
God we Trust,” and “Industry produceth Wealth.” On the other side are
these verses:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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