In reaction to the fluffy  Rococo shapes used earlier, by the middle of the nineteenth century, Staffordshire earthenware came to be dominated by clean, faceted shapes--influenced by the Gothic revival movement--executed in a heavier ironstone body.

George Wooliscroft's "Eon" pattern decorates the flat panels of this jug with a scene of country life counter to the urban industrialization which seemed to be taking over Britain at the time.  The pattern, executed in red with teal green border captures a sense of rural quiet.  In the foreground, a young woman holding a cat  pauses in conversation with a couple of peddlers.   Further on, laborers work near a romantically decrepit windmill.  The faint image of a church tower beckons us to a distant country village.   This portrayal of quiet, country tranquility is completed with a border of additional  rustic framed vignettes of country life around the rim, inside and out. 

Wooliscroft is recorded working in Tunstall from 1851 to 1853 and again 1860 to 1864. Nothing appears in our references regarding his whereabouts in the intervening period. (We assume he was working with or for other area potters.)  "Eon" could have originated from either period, reflecting nostalgia for simpler times and ways of life that became an obsession of the English from the second quarter of the century on.  This longing was in reaction to what seemed like the endless ills brought on by an unstoppable wave of urbanization and industrialization.