Overglaze decoration in coloured enamels was already in use in Staffordshire by July 1750, when it was mentioned in a letter written by Dr Richard Pococke after visiting Newcastle-under-Lyme and the pottery villages. It may have been introduced by immigrant Dutch enamellers, and for many years remained the province of specialists such as the Daniels of Cobridge and the Warburtons of Hot Lane, to whom leading potters, such as Thomas and John Wedgwood, sent their goods for decoration.

White salt-glazed stoneware with enamelled decoration was an attractive substitute for porcelain, which remained an expensive luxury, even after the setting up of English porcelain factories during the 1740s and 1750s. Chinese export porcelain provided the inspiration for many of the designs. This finely thrown and turned jug is decorated with Oriental plants and diapered borders in imitation of the famille rose palette. Coloured grounds and painting in reserved panels, which had been popularized in Europe by the Meissen and Sevres porcelain factories, were imitated too, but the character of the Staffordshire salt-glazed stoneware versions was much less sophisticated and often decidedly quaint.

White salt-glazed stoneware is usually attributed to Staffordshire, but excavations or documentary evidence have shown that it was also manufactured at the Swinton and Leeds Potteries in Yorkshire, at Liverpool, Rotherham, Bovey Tracy and Chester. Its production continued into the 1770s but by about 1780 it had been superseded by creamware and pearlware.