Lemonade Jug

Wedgwood earthenware lemonade jug ca 1939; design by Eric Ravilious

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The shape of this Queen's Ware jug is voluptuously curvaceous.  The  Josiah Wedgwood and Sons 'Liverpool' shape was one of their most traditional forms.  It derived from the large cream ware and porcelain jugs of the same shape made in Liverpool in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  You can envisage how it would feel to grasp the generous handle in one hand, taking the weight of the full jug in the other, just below its wide belly, to pour the contents.  It's practical and robust; an everyday cream earthenware jug.

Tactile as it is, it was the Eric Ravilious design rather than the form that stopped me in my tracks when browsing the Victoria and Albert Museum's ceramics collection.  Transfer-printed in black and colour-washed, a barrel with garden tools and ivy decorate one side.  On the other, a cat sleeps while bees buzz around a hive and a wheelbarrow awaits the gardener's return from his break - all reassuring ideals of Britishness. 

Eric Ravilious is on my mind having last year attended an insightful talk by James Russell at London's Bankside Gallery and later catching the exhibition of Ravilious' Prints at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester in December.  

A number of contemporary British artists were commissioned to design ceramics in the 1930's in response to a growing demand for simplicity.  Eric Ravilious designed for Wedgwood between 1936 and1940 but wartime restrictions meant many of his designs did not go into production in any quantities until the 1950's.  Regrettably, Ravilious did not live to see it.  Made an Official War Artist in 1940, he was lost on active service in 1942.  In addition to ceramics, Ravilious designed glass for Stuart Crystal and furniture for Dunbar Hay.  He is best known today for his work as a muralist, painter, wood-engraver, lithographer, book-illustrator and War Artist. For me, his pastoral landscapes and rural interiors are love letters to the English countryside, frequently odd but ever enchanting.

So why a Lemonade Jug?  Our 19th century ancestors appreciated the value of lemons in the diet to combat the disease 'scurvy'.  Whether amongst sailors who had to subsist on dried foods for long periods, or people who lived on a poor diet lacking in Vitamin C, the arrival of the first lemons of the new season from the Mediterranean region was eagerly awaited.  In late winter, in the home, a lemon drink was made from them to "cleanse the blood".  The rich would serve their lemonade from crystal. For the rest, a ceramic jug would suffice.  The Wedgwood 'Liverpool' form earthenware with the Ravilious 'Garden Implements' design would be my choice.

This year the main Winter/Spring season brought really good, fragrant, zesty lemons.  These days, some of the trees in Liguria crop throughout the summer.   As I've offered you a Lemonade Jug as this month's Take One Dish, how can I not offer you a recipe for lemonade?  This one is adapted from Jane Grigson's Fruit Book.  For me, Jane Grigson was one of the best writers on British Food (though not exclusively British) so choosing her recipe seems appropriate.  The first stage of the recipe produces a cordial.  This can be bottled, and kept for a few weeks ready, to be made into lemonade by adding carbonated or soda water.

Lemon Cordial (makes 20fl oz/600ml cordial)

3 large lemons

6 oz/175g caster sugar

Wash and then peel the lemons thinly.  Place the peel in a heavy-based 18cm/7 inch saucepan and cover with 2½cm/1 inch of cold water.  Cover with a lid and put on a very low heat.  Bring almost to the boil (boiling will make the cordial bitter).  Lift off the heat, allow to cool for a few minutes, then strain the liquid into a jug.  Squeeze the lemons and stir in the juice and the sugar. 

At this point you can either pour the cordial into a sterilised bottle to preserve it or dilute it to make lemonade for drinking straightaway.

Lemonade

20 fl oz/600ml lemon cordial

Carbonated or soda water

Dilute the cordial in a ratio of around 1 part cordial to 4 or 5 parts carbonated or soda water, add ice and mint leaves or borage flowers

Sources:

The Victoria and Albert Museum
The Wedgewood Museum

Tate Britain
James Russell

Jane Grigson's Fruit Book (Penguin Books)

Further reading on Eric Ravilious: Mainstone Press