Antique Collecting articles Winning with Blackjacks | Page 2

leather jacks, often with a slight swelling
at the waist, is unknown in silver and
more akin to early pewter measures.
Blackjacks were cut to shape from a flat
piece of leather with the handle cut from
the same piece, formed by two `V’ shaped
sections. The cut out was then moulded
to shape on a rounded wooden block
before being stitched together at the
sides and top. The wooden mould was
then removed from the hole in the base
and a round section of leather stitched in
place to form the base. These were
always inset above the foot rim to allow
for some swelling in the base.
Decline
As communal eating declined in the
larger stately homes, and retinues
shrank, many jacks and bombards
would have been sold or thrown away,
and one can assume that the
destruction of the monasteries saw
many jacks re-possessed. There are late
19th century accounts from Winchester
College of the use of jacks to bring beer
to the dining room, and jacks have also
been recorded at Eton, Repton,
Westminster and Christ’s Hospital.
Colleges in Oxford and Cambridge had
butteries with hatches where
tradesmen and horse grooms could
purchase ale. An oak buttery hatch at
New College is carved with jacks in the
oak spandrels. Many jacks are found in

Figure 1. Oliver Baker’s 1921 book, Black Jacks
and Leather Bottells. The seminal work on the
subject, showing three leather bottles in the
Arms of the Bottle Makers and Horners Guild

stately homes including Woburn,
Parham, Clandon Park and Sudeley
Castle. Oliver Baker, in his 1921
privately printed book, (figure 1) shows
a group of seven jacks at Madresfield
Court which, since he wrote the book,
must have been dispersed as four are
illustrated below (figure 2) and
previously offered by Christies in 1994
as part of the John Fardon collection.

Mighty bombards
Bombard is the name given to the
largest jack, called the `The king of
drinking vessels’ by Oliver Baker.
Probably named after the squat broad
cannon called a bombard, used in
Medieval times mainly in sieges to
throw stone balls. Baker records one
drinking vessel that held more than
seven gallons. Baker also records some
bombards being marked `CH’ for
Chelsea Hospital in paint and he
proudly records how he unearthed
some languishing in a store room and
persuaded the warden to put them on
display. He also believes that the
hospital and similar institutions were
slowly selling off their jacks to dealers,
and recounts finding three in the
collections of Sir Francis Boileau Bart
and another with Sir Spencer PonsonbyFane, both of which had traces of the
erased `CH’ lettering.
A bombard purchased by Francis
Boileau Bart had also come from
Greenwich Naval Hospital with
provenance to prove it. Some of these
observations show that the collectors in
the 1910s and 20s were, by and large,
wealthy gentleman. The well-off
publisher of Baker’s own book, William
John Fieldhouse, even amassed a huge
collection. The Fieldhouse collection of
blackjacks and pewter was sold at
Sotheby’s in 1929.

Figure 2. A set of four jacks from Madresfield Court, Malvern, painted with the arms of Lygon as borne by the Earls of Beauchamp,
early 18th Century, 151⁄4 in. and smaller, (John Fardon Collection, Christie’s March 1994.) £3000-5000

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