Jug, Chinese export ware.

This jug was said to have belonged to Captain James Cook and to have been used by him during his voyages around the world. The Dominion Museum purchased the piece in 1967, in time for the 1969 bicentenary of Cook’s first voyage to Aotearoa New Zealand.

The vendor, A.P. Barfoot, was given a collection of ‘Captain Cook’s china’ in 1931 as a wedding gift from his aunt. She was given the collection by her father, an antiques dealer, who acquired it from a Mrs Waters of Fairlawn. Beyond this, the provenance is unknown, although the vendor noted that ‘This china we had always known in the family as having been in the possession of Capt Cook and as you can see from the old labels still attached have been so exhibited’. We do not know where and when this exhibition took place, but the faint paper labels are still attached.