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Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge
Potter: Toft, Thomas
Earthenware, slip-coated, and trailed with 'The Fall' or 'Temptation' under lead-glaze; reverse unglazed
Red earthenware, thrown, the front coated with dark brown slip, trailed in pale red, olive-green, and white slips, and covered with yellowish lead-glaze. The green slip, where used for broader surfaces and not as a trailed outline, appears to have been cut from a slab of lcay and pressed down with a coarse textiles fabric of which is shows the meshes. Circular with a wide slanting rim and deep well. Decorated in the well with 'The Fall' or 'Temptation'. Eve and Adam stand respectively on the left and right of the Tree of Knowledge which is entwined by Satan in the form of a snake. To the right of Eve is the name 'EVE and to the left of Adam, AD/AMAbove Adam there is a small angel, and a bird (probably an eagle). Above Eve there is a wyvern, and above the tree, a rabbit, a tulip, paired leaves, and a tulip. The rim is decorated with stylized tulips alternating with pomegranates, broken at the bottom by a panel trailed with 'THOMAS TOFT' with five almond-shaped motifs below it. The reverse is undecorated.
History note: Francis Derwent Wood; Mr Rochelle Thomas, King Street, St James's, London; Mr Stoner, London, from whom purchased for £105 on 12 June 1908 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge.
Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
17th Century, Late
Charles II
Circa
1670
CE
-
1685
CE
The Temptation or Fall was a popular subject for the decoration of seventeenth-century slipware and delftware dishes This one is unusual in having a dark brown slip ground. The angel, wyvern, and rabbit symbolize good, evil, and lust or fecundity respectively. A dish with this subject on the more common cream ground, dated 1674, is at Temple Newsam House, Leeds.
Front
composed of
lead-glaze
( probably galena applied in powdered form)
Decoration
composed of
slip
Whole Horizontal
Diameter 54.3 cm
Whole Vertical
Diameter 55.5 cm
Accession number: C.206-1928
Primary reference Number: 73061
Old object number: 2091
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/73061 Accessed: 2024-11-21 19:07:52
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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/73061
|title=Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 19:07:52|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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