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Potter: Toft, Ralph
Slipware dish decorated with a crowned and bewigged male bust in an oval medallion surrounded by eight more. The trellis border is broken by a panel slip-trailed with the name' RALALPH TO' for Ralph Toft.
Dark buff earthenware, thrown, coated on the interior with cream slip, decorated with slip trailing in brown, dark brown and cream slips, and lead-glazed; the reverse is undecorated, but the sides appear to have been coated thinly in dark brown slip or paint. The dish is circular with a wide, sloping, and uneven concave rim, and a well with deep curved sides and an almost flat central area. The well is decorated with a central oval medallion enclosing a crowned and bewigged male head, perhaps Charles II, surrounded by four arched compartments each enclosing another crowned head, and in the spandrels between them, four slightly smaller crowned heads. The compartments, crowns, wigs and faces have outlines jewelled in brown and cream slips, and the wigs are filled in with dark brown slip. The trellis border on the rim is broken at the bottom by a panel slip-trailed with the name 'RALALPH TO' for Ralph Toft.
History note: A small dealer in Yorkshire; bought by Mrs John Price; John Price, Woollen Merchant, 24 Aston Cross, Birmingham; the sale by him was negociated by a Mr Ernest Hyde, and the purchase was made by George Stoner for £80 and £10 commission on 20 January1909 on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge.
Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest
Diameter: 43.5 cm
Height: 8.2 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
17th Century, Late
Circa
1670
-
1680
The name Ralph Toft occurs in the Hearth Tax Roll for 1666 at both Shelton and Hanley in north Staffordshire. Four dated dishes are recorded which bear his name: one dated 1676 and three dated 1677, so this example was probably made during the 1670s. The crowned heads may therefore represent Charles II who ruled from 1660 to 1685.
Decoration
composed of
slip
( cream, brown, dark brown)
Front Surface
composed of
lead-glaze
( yellowish)
Interior Or Front
dark buff Earthenware
Throwing (pottery technique) : Dark buff earthenware, thrown, slip-coated on the interior, decorated with slip-trailing in brown, dark brown, and cream, and lead-glazed; exterior undecorated
Accession number: C.210-1928
Primary reference Number: 73112
Old object number: 3113
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/73112 Accessed: 2025-03-26 08:24:28
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/73112
|title=Dish
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-03-26 08:24:28|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-73112
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/aa4/C_210_1928.jpg"
alt="Dish"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Dish</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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