CIRCA 1640-60, PROBABLY SOUTHWARK, ROTHERHITHE OR POSSIBLY NETHERLANDS

Inspired by boldly decorated Iznik pottery and Italian maiolica of the mid-16th century, similar dense foliate ornament appears on English and Netherlandish pottery of the 17th century. Michael Archer discusses an English attribution for two large delft drug-jars decorated with similar foliage and the arms of the Society of Apothecaries dated 1647 and 1656; these would most likely have been made in London where there were at least three factories capable of producing this type of pottery in the mid-17th century.1 A number of other wares of a similar date and with closely related ornament are recorded, also suggesting a London origin, these include: a straight-sided mug (dated 1644) found in Southwark, illustrated by Frank Britton, London Delftware, London, 1987, no. 34, a drug-jar from the Longridge Collection, sold at Christie's in New York on 14 January 2011, lot 68, and a silver-mounted jug in the Fitzwilliam Museum, see Michael Archer, Delftware in the Fitzwilliam Museum, London, 2013, p. 159, Cat. No. C.4.

The monogram CPM and initial F on the reverse of the dish are most likely painter's marks and similar monograms and initials can be seen on the 'Clapmash' dish illustrated by Leslie Grigsby in The Longridge Collection of English Slipware and Delftware, London, 2000, Vol. II, pp. 94-95, no. D63, which was subsequently sold in these Rooms on 10 June 2010, lot 1042.

1. See Michael Archer, ibid., 2013, pp. 46-47, cat. no. A. 72; for an illustration of the apothecary jars see Louis L. Lipski and Michael Archer, Dated English Delftware, London, 1984, p. 366, nos. 1592 & 1593.