A Victorian silver Prize Cream Jug for ‘Butter Design’

A Victorian Agricultural Prize silver Milk Jug, the interior gilt and the exterior chased with floral scroll work and, at the front beneath the lip, a wheatsheaf below a scroll engraved ‘Felton Agricultural Society‘, Sheffield 21868, by Martin, Hall. A cartouche on one side is engraved: ‘Felton Agricultural Society 1868 1st Prize for Butter Design awarded to Ursula Moore.’

Felton is a village in Northumberland 12 miles north of Morpeth. The Newcastle Courant for August 14th  1868 had an article on the Felton Agricultural Society Show: ‘The sixth annual show of this society was held was held yesterday (Thursday) at Felton. Established in 1863, the society awarded £55 in premiums to exhibitors, and every succeeding yearthe committee found themsleves in a position to largely increase their awards. Sir M.W. Ridley, Bart., M.P., the Rev. R.W. Bosanquet, Mr. S. Langdale, and others have also aided the society by the donation of silver cups. The society yesterday offered more in premiums by £100 than it did on the day of its birth, and it has been enabled to do this entirely through the liberality of the landlords and tenants of the district, who are all but unanimous in according it support.

The show of yesterday, both in point of number and merit, was the best the society has had -the entries being upwards of thirty above those of any previous year.

The show was held as usual in a pleasantly situated field to the north of Felton Park, admirably adapted for an exhibition of this kind. The weather, although threatening in the morning, became beautifully fine as the day advanced, and so continued until between four and five o’clock, when a little rain fell, but this soon passed away.’

The article lists numerous winners for various classes in the show, including some for Dairy produce, however, although the prize awarded for ‘Butter Design’, being a fine silver cream jug, was superior to many of the other prizes awarded, Ursula Morre is not mentioned. Of the two classes for dairy produce listed, the first was for Members for the ‘Best Four Half Pounds of Fresh Butter‘ for which the winner was awarded a pair of silver Butter Knives, value £2, and second place was awarded a Glass Butter Cooler, value 15s. In the other class, ‘Open only to occupiers whose house rent does not excedd £10 per annum, or who do not occupy more than 10 acres of land’, was for ‘Best Two Half Pounds of Fresh Butter, in Round Prints.’ The winner in this class was awarded an Electro-Plated Tea-Pot, value £1 10s,  and the second place a China Tea-Service, value £1.’

Ursula Moore can be identified as born in 1849, a daughter of John Moore, a Farm Labourer living in 1871 in the village of Cronkley, Northumberland and his wife, Mary.