Some basalt forms show off the clay's elegantly austere surface texture. Others, as we see here, take advantage of basalt's ability to take fine moulded detail. The extraordinarily lively surface of this cylinder shaped mug is covered in horizontal bands of relief, the outermost of a classical origin, the inner three derived from nature. A wide central band of oak branches is so complex that it more recalls a bramble thicket. Flanking it are two narrow bands utilizing oak leaves in a more formal arrangement. The end result suggests the influence of finely tooled silver vessels.

The upper case WEDGWOOD mark was used on "useful" wares from 1769 through the nineteenth century. Both Robin Reilly, WEDGWOOD, VOLUME I and Elizabeth Bryding Adams, The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art illustrate this mug with a Wedgwood and Bentley mark. We are guessing production would have ceased sometime after 1800, edged out by the taste for Neoclassicism.