There are only a small handful of them out there and - as Louis Taylor (12.5% buyer premium) had found out earlier this year - they are very desirable. In June they sold a Sairey Gamp jug with this stamp at £3600 against an estimate of just £30-50.
In addition to the £19,000 Stanley Matthews jug featured in last week's issue, the sell-out sale of character jugs from the reserve collection of cash-strapped Royal Doulton sold by the Stoke-on-Trent auctioneers on October 29 included two jugs with the inscription Fired in the Last Firing of a Traditional Bottle Oven 1978.
The large Beefeater D6206, designed by Harry Fenton usually commands around £50 but this special example was bid to £4800, selling to Nick Tzimas of UK International Ceramics, Woodbridge.
A Henry VIII jug with the same rare backstamp sold for £3800.
Pictured here is a one-off Ronald Reagan jug that differs from the production line version in its darker jacket, a grey striped tie and the absence of a gold cap to the flagpole handle.
At £2500 it was bought for a collector by Mr Tzimas who also carried away a rare version of the Santa Claus jug D6794 with a holly wreath handle at £2300.
