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English Delftware scallop shell wash basin

Image attached to C.1338-1928

An image of Wash basin in the form of a scallop shell. English Delftware. Unidentified London pottery, or Brislington Pottery, possibly. In the middle are the initials and date 'D/D:E/1683' with three small lozenges below within a scrolled cartouche outlined in mananese-purple. The flanges of the shell are decorated by a mermaid, a cross between a merman and a hippocamp, two shells (?) and a sea hound, and along the lower edge there is a row of four groups of scrolls separated by small circles. Buff earthenware, press-moulded, tin-glazed, and painted in blue and manganese-purple, height, whole, 7.6 cm, length, whole, 44.2 cm, width, whole, 42.4 cm, dated 1683. Baroque. Production Notes: The basin was probably made in London or possibly at Brislington. At the date of production potteries were operating in the London area at Southwark, Lambeth, and Wapping. The mould was probably after, or taken from, an earlier silver prototype such as an example of 1610-11 accompanied by a mermaid-shaped ewer in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.10 & A-1974).

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Wash basin in the form of a scallop shell. English Delftware. Unidentified London pottery, or Brislington Pottery, possibly. In the middle are the initials and date 'D/D:E/1683' with three small lozenges below within a scrolled cartouche outlined in mananese-purple. The flanges of the shell are decorated by a mermaid, a cross between a merman and a hippocamp, two shells (?) and a sea hound, and along the lower edge there is a row of four groups of scrolls separated by small circles. Buff earthenware, press-moulded, tin-glazed, and painted in blue and manganese-purple, height, whole, 7.6 cm, length, whole, 44.2 cm, width, whole, 42.4 cm, dated 1683. Baroque. Production Notes: The basin was probably made in London or possibly at Brislington. At the date of production potteries were operating in the London area at Southwark, Lambeth, and Wapping. The mould was probably after, or taken from, an earlier silver prototype such as an example of 1610-11 accompanied by a mermaid-shaped ewer in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.10 & A-1974).

Image data

  • Accession Number: C.1338-1928
  • Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
  • Aperture: f/45.0
  • Focal length: 120
  • Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
  • Photographer name: Andrew Norman
  • Image height: 1024 pixels
  • Image width: 883 pixels
  • Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
  • Filesize: 868.60kB
  • Exposure time: 1/125
  • ISO Speed: 200
  • Fnumber: 45/1
  • Captured: 2012:05:28 15:08:14

Key words

17th Century Baroque basin blue and white Brislington Pottery cartouche clam shell dated Delftware earthenware English English Delftware Fitz_AA glazed marine mermaid merman moulded press moulded Restoration scallop shell scalloped scalloped edge sea shell shells Stewart Period Stuart Period tin-glazed wash basin

Colours in this image

rgb(48,64,78), rgb(193,190,186), rgb(132,128,119), rgb(243,240,236), rgb(234,223,212), rgb(125,143,155), rgb(105,88,73), rgb(128,107,80), rgb(150,140,140), rgb(220,228,220), rgb(92,156,172)

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The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "English Delftware scallop shell wash basin" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-205034 Accessed: 2024-03-28 22:57:53

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-205034 |title=English Delftware scallop shell wash basin |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-28 22:57:53|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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