Gray's Pottery pitcher with two Henry Heath transfer printed images of Jewish peddlers

Mottled, purple, lusterware, ceramic pitcher made by Gray’s Pottery in England, likely between 1948 and 1961. Gray’s Pottery, operated in England from 1907 until the early 1960’s. The pitcher depicts two, transfer printed illustrations of Jewish peddlers originally drawn by Henry Heath as part of his Scenes in London series around 1840. In the first image (Heath’s print number 24) an old clothes peddler is depicted with a large nose, sidelocks, and a beard; three stereotypical physical features commonly attributed to Jewish men. Clothes peddlers dealt in old garments they bought, cleaned and repaired, and then sold for profit. In the second image (print number 23) the other peddler is selling strings of garlic. To the ancient Israelites, garlic was a central concept of a good life as well as a key ingredient to many dishes. However, some associated Jews’ consumption of garlic with foetor judaicus, the antisemitic belief that Jews exuded a foul-smelling odor. During the 19th century, it was believed that Jews had an odor that resembled the smell of onion and garlic, caused by bad hygiene or a poor diet. Peddling was a common occupation for Jewish men during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, old prejudices formed an antisemitic stereotype of the Jewish peddler. The stereotype originated from the economic and professional restrictions placed on early European Jews. They were barred from owning land, farming, joining trade guilds, and military service. These restrictions limited Jews to the occupations of retail peddling, hawking, and moneylending. This canard was often visually depicted as a Jewish peddler, an untrustworthy figure that sold cut-rate items at inflated prices. This pitcher is one of the 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.