ESTIMATED at £800-1200, this 5in (12.5cm) high creamware mug decorated with a portrait of the radical politician and journalist John Wilkes (1725-97) sold for £10,000 (plus 22% buyer’s premium) to lead the ceramics and glass sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on February 28.
It was underbid in the room by an English collector but is now going to the US.
The inscription Wilkes And Liberty No. 45 to the barrel-shaped mug is as good as a date as it refers to the publication of the 45th issue of John Wilkes’ sharptongued periodical The North Briton.