Red earthenware decorated in white slip and covered with a yellowish lead glaze. Made by John Livermore. English (Wrotham), dated 1649.

Tyg of red earthenware, decorated in white slip under a yellow glaze. Bucket-shaped, with four white double loop handles decorated with twisted threads of red and white clay and red dots. Decorated on the body iwth trailed chevron pattern and dots and with applied rectangular white panels impressed with (1) the date '1649', (2) the initials 'IL' (probably for John Livermore) and a stylised lion (3) the initials 'WSC' and a cross, and (4) a fleur-de-lys and a rosette.

Bequeathed by Mr Wallace Elliot

From the Lomax Collection, Lot 90 (London, Cookson).
Lead glazed earthenware 'tyg' with slip-trailed decoration and stamped pads of white clay. English (Wrotham), dated 1649. This four-handled cup has the initials 'IL' stamped on one of the applied pads, for John Livermore, one of the earliest slipware potters working at Wrotham.

Slipware, 1670-1720
Made in North Staffordshire: About 1670-1720
Lead-glazed earthenware with impressed, applied or trailed white slip decoration
Both th epossibilities and the inherent limitations of slip decoration were fully explored in this period. Display dishes with elaborate free-hand trailed decoration were made by several families of country potters, of whom Thomas Toft I is justly the most famous. In the Burslem area, 'tygs' (multi-handled jugs) and posset pots for communal drinking were made on a commercial scale, as well as porringers, and small cups for strong ale. Before salt-glazing was introduced to Staffordshire about 1700, imitations of stonewares were made with streaky brown glazes.
17th-Century Slipware
Made in the South East and South West of England; 160-1700
Lead-glazed earthenware with impressed, applied or trailed white slip decoration
Red earthenwares with trailed white slip designs were at first imoported from the Netherlands. They were later copied at Harlow in Essex, at Wrotham in Kent and, by the mid-17th century, in North Stafforshire. The Harlow kilns supplied London throughout the 17th century with 'Metropolitan Slipwares' often bearing moralising inscriptions. The farmer-potters of Wrotham supplied their local market with robust multi-handled 'tygs' from about 1600 until the 1730s. In Wiltshire, special covered pots for mulled ale were made for wassailing on Twelfth Night.

C.118-1938