Pottery; Jug/Ashtray conglomerate

A fused lump of broken jugs and ashtrays, many with a printed label which reads 'Dewars White Label Whisky'. It is just one of a number of fragments including a number of complete examples recovered from one of the cellars on buildings off South Castle Street destroyed during World War II. The cellars from the buildings were rediscovered during archaeological excavations prior to the building of the underground car park at Liverpool ONE shopping centre in 2007. The makers mark, "J.MADDOCKS & SONS Ltd. MADE IN ENGLAND ROYAL VITREOUS", shows they were made by in Burslem, Staffordshire after 1896. The jugs and ashtrays were smashed and fused together in a hot fire, caused by a German incendiary bomb fire, during the Liverpool May Blitz of 1941.