Victorian lidded jug once owned by Charles Dickens, £5400 at Bishop & Miller.
With a watertight provenance to a literary giant, it hammered down for £5400 (25% buyer’s premium) against a guide of £3000-4000.
To Dickens, a good gin punch – a beverage enjoyed by his characters from the Ghost of Christmas Present to David Copperfield – was more than simple party fare. It was a ritual that blended the author’s love for theatre, storytelling, and the warm conviviality of a bygone era. And he committed to the performance. Often decked out in a blue velvet cloak, primrose-yellow gloves, glinting watch chains, and a jewelled tie pin, he punctuated his punch-making with narration about the ingredients.
According to one account, when the concoction was ready, it was ‘poured out in the manner of a conjuror producing strange articles from a hat.’ In his book Drinking With Dickens, the author’s great-grandson Cedric Dickens, notes: “Charles Dickens himself particularly loved the ritual of mixing the evening glass of gin punch which he performed with all the energy and discrimination of Mr Micawber.”
Engraved with the monogram CD and struck with touchmarks for either Gerardin & Watson (f l.1824-94) or Charles Bentley (fl.1837-63), this apparently well-used 8½in (22cm) jug dates from c.1845. It is engraved to the cover Purchased at the Sale at Gadshill, August 11th 1870, No. 325 in Catalogue This was constantly used by Charles Dickens in preparation of his celebrated gin punch brewed by the great author himself.
Inscription on the lidded jug owned by Charles Dickens, £5400 at Bishop & Miller.
Gad’s Hill Place, Dickens’ country home for the last 14 years of his life and the only house he ever owned, was originally built in 1780 for a former Mayor of Rochester.
Dickens first saw it as a nine-year-old boy while out walking in the Kent countryside with his father and it made an indelible impression. In 1856, when he had risen far from his humble origins to become the greatest novelist of his age, he bought it alongside 26 surrounding acres.
In his will Dickens bequeathed his library to his son Charley, his manuscripts to his close friend the biographer John Forster (1812-76), and his private papers and jewellery to his sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth. The house and contents, however, were sold.
His paintings and works of art were dispersed by Christie’s on July 9, 1870, while on August 10-13 a local firm, Messrs Thomas & Homan of Rochester, conducted a sale of household furniture, linen, carriages, and other articles. This jug was lot 325, described simply as a ‘Metal hot water jug’ and listed under ‘Pantry’.
Tony Chapman (1943-2022), who studied medicine at Cambridge, moved to Halifax in 1986, the year he joined The Pewter Society. Before long, space in his former textile merchant’s home was given over to a secret pewter room hidden from view by a hanging oak corner cupboard.
Here Chapman filled every surface of its 17th century oak furniture and bespoke floor-to ceiling shelves with fine and rare British pewter. Chapman was known to have corresponded with Cedric Dickens regarding this jug.
After a lot of pre-sale interest it sold to an American bidder who beat competition from Ireland, Denmark and the UK.
