Creamware painted overglaze with enamels was the medium for some of the most charming tablewares made in Yorkshire and Staffordshire between the 1760s and 1790s. They include many commemorative pieces, such as jugs and mugs, decorated to order with names, dates and inscriptions, sometimes accompanied by the implements of the owner's trade or scenes showing their occupation. Apart from their social interest, these documentary pieces provide an important guide to dating shapes and styles of decoration.

John Bridgen's jug is decorated with a continuous view of a farm with milking and haymaking in progress. It includes many details which are difficult to see in a reproduction, such as three chickens, a piglet and a dog sitting despondently outside his kennel; the village church, inn and windmill in the background; and on the other side, a rider allowing his horse to drink in the duck pond. The style is naive, but the painter had an excellent grasp of how to adapt his design to cover the curved surface of the jug.