Wine and its intoxicating effects are celebrated in Minton's "Silenus" jug.  Featured on the jug are Silenus, the old tippler serving as guardian to the young god of wine Bacchus, the boyish god himself, and attendant pointy-eared and goat footed satyrs (whose job, it seems, is to struggle to keep the two drunkards--old and young--upright). The Silenus group, modeled after a composition by Rubens, was also employed by Meigh for his "Bacchanalian Dance" jug. The young Bacchus group bears a slight similarity to the putti designs of Lady Beauclerk utilized by Wedgwood.

The rustic background is trimmed toward the top with--what else--hanging bunches of grapes.

R.K. Henrywood, Relief Moulded Jugs, 1820-1900 notes that the Silenus jug was one of Minton's earliest molded jugs. As with many early molded jugs, the vessel shape is quite irregular, its form determined by the sculptural figures it supports. Relief elements too deep to be successfully molded would have been cast separately and skillfully positioned by a worker known as a repairer.

The deep green stoneware body, a color perhaps exclusive to this pottery, is particularly prized by jug collectors.