A CHINESE EXPORT METAL-MOUNTED PUNCH POT AND COVER

Arthur Lusk (1714-1808) was a captain in the Royal Navy, and his tombstone reads 'To the memory of Captain Arthur Lusk who circumnavigated the globe with Lord Anson'. According to the inscription on this teapot, Lusk sailed aboard the Centurion, the flagship of Lord Anson's famous circumnavigation, 1740-44. From 1740 Britain was at war with the Spanish over the Austrian Succession, and that year Anson set sail with eight ships on a mission to capture or disrupt Spain's Pacific possessions. In 1744 he returned to England by way of China, thus completing a circumnavigation of the globe, and not doubt acquiring along the way numerous items such as Captain Lusk's teapot.