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Production: Unidentified Pottery (Possibly)
Press-moulded slipware dish decorated with the Royal Arms supported by a lion and unicorn, and another lion below it
Dark buff earthenware, press-moulded over a hump mould to produce a design in relief on the interior, coated with cream slip, and slip-trailed in brown, under yellowish lead-glaze. The dish is circular with deep curved sides, and a crinkled edge produced by making adjacent impressions with an oval implement or stick. The reverse is undecorated, and has a series of circular impressions around the middle. The interior surface is filled by an incorrect version of the Royal Arms below a crown, supported on the left by a crowned lion and on the right by a unicorn. It which shows in the first quarter, a lion rampant above three lions passant, in the second, chequers, in the third, a harp, and in the fourth, three fleur-de-lis arranged two over one. Below the shield, an uncrowned lion bounds to the right between two scrolls.
History note: Sotheby's, 16 March, 1928, lot 190B; bought by the auctioneer for £70 on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge
Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest
Diameter: 39.5 cm
Height: 7.6 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
Second quarter of 18th century
George I
George II
Circa
1725
CE
-
1750
CE
The attribution of this dish is based on a dish in the British Museum which has the initials ‘S S’ incorporated into the design on the front, and was incised ‘By/Stephen Shaw/1725’ on the back before firing. Inv. no. 1920,031.8. Another dish with an almost similar design in the Helena Thompson Museum, Allerdale, is incised with the words ‘Clifton/Dish’.
This dish was attributed to Staffordshire on accession, but may have been made in or near Clifton in Cumbria. A comparable dish bearing the intials 'H/ExM' above the crown, IT in the quarter of the arms above the harp, and incised 'Clifton/Dish' on the back, is in the Helena Thompson Museum, Workington. The IT may stand for James Tunstall, whose father, Moses, had moved from Burslem to Cumbria in about 1737. That dish was illustrated in the National Art Collections Fund Review 1990, p. 192, (no. 3529).
Decoration
composed of
slip
( cream, brown)
Front
composed of
lead-glaze
( yellowish)
Press-moulding : Dark buff earthenware, press-moulded over a hump mould to produce a design in relief on the interior, coated with cream slip, and slip-trailed in brown, under yellowish lead-glaze. The dish is circular with deep curved sides, and a crinkled edge produced by making adjacent impressions with an oval implement or stick. The reverse is undecorated
Inscription present: rectangular white paper stick-on label with curt corners and a Prussian blue line running round the edge
Accession number: C.199-1928
Primary reference Number: 72938
Old object number: 4991
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Dish" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/72938 Accessed: 2025-04-19 10:19:34
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/72938
|title=Dish
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-04-19 10:19:34|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-72938
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa7/C_199_1928.jpg"
alt="Dish"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Dish</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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