Dish thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
British Galleries, Room 56, The Djanogly Gallery

Dish

1657 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
This is a typical delftware (tin-glazed earthenware) display dish of the mid-17th century. The wide rim painted with an elaborate floral border serves as a frame for the comparatively small central well, which depicts an imaginary urban landscape.

Collectors & Owners
Collectors did not take delftware seriously until the supply of slipware (wares of coarse red clay decorated with a white liquid clay known as slip) and other pre-industrial earthenware began to dry up in the early 20th century. This neglect was partly because delftware was completely unrelated to fashionable Staffordshire pottery. Its status continued to rise, especially after the publication of ProfessorFrederick Horace Garner's English Delftware in 1948. Even as late as the 1960s, however, it was still plentiful and fairly inexpensive. This enabled obsessive collectors such as the architect and ceramic historian Louis Lipski (1914-1979) to amass huge collections with a comparatively small outlay.

From that time onwards, collectors began to search for early pieces made for the mass market that had descended through families and been long forgotten. This dish, for example, was bought by a dealer at a country sale in 1970 and initially offered to the V&A for œ80. The Museum declined, after which it passed through Sotheby's auction house and was later acquired by the V&A for a somewhat higher market value. Since then, research into the early London potteries has firmly placed this unpretentious dish at the heart of a group of delftwares. They were probably made at the first Southwark pottery at Pickleherring Quay, when it was under the management of Richard Newnham (between about 1645 to about 1684), whose initials this dish bears. The various forms and types of decoration encompassed by this group now provide an invaluable repertoire of clues for the identification of other Pickleherring products.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Tin-glazed earthenware, painted
Brief description
Tin-glazed earthenware dish depicting landscape with buildings and an inscription, Britain, 1675.
Physical description
A landscape with buildings, trees and a prominent fence in the foreground painted in blue green, ochre and manganese-purple. The building at the left appears to be a church. The central spire has a statue at its apex. The initials and date N/R E 1657 appear at the top. The border has a pattern of leaves and leaf-scrolls in similar colours. Three stilt marks on the front (9 cms point to point). On the back the date 1657 is painted boldly in blue within the foot-rim and again just outside it.
Body colour: Mid buff.
Glaze: White. Dull pinkish white tin-glaze, possibly over a pale slip, covers the entire back. The foot-rim has been wiped virtually entirely clean of glaze.
Shape: Shape A. The flange warped upwards in the firing at one point. (Alphabetic shape codes as used in appendix to Archer. Delftware. 1997)
Dimensions
  • Height: 47cm
  • Diameter: 47cm
Dimensions checked: Measured; 06/06/2000 by KB Published in Archer, Delftware, 1997.
Marks and inscriptions
  • Inscribed N/R E 1657. (Back)
  • 1657
Gallery label
British Galleries: This dish shows an imaginary town, and the initials NRE, for Richard Newnham, proprietor from about 1645 to about 1684 of the Pickleherring Pottery, Southwark, London, and his wife Elizabeth. The distinctive style of the landscape, and the leafy border are characteristic of other dishes and mugs from the Pickleherring Pottery.(27/03/2003)
Object history
Mr N.W. Podmore. Sothebys. 22:10:1970. Lot 210. Purchased from Messrs Jellinek and Vermoutier, Kensington, 1971.
Exhibited: Rijksmuseum, No: 28.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Object Type
This is a typical delftware (tin-glazed earthenware) display dish of the mid-17th century. The wide rim painted with an elaborate floral border serves as a frame for the comparatively small central well, which depicts an imaginary urban landscape.

Collectors & Owners
Collectors did not take delftware seriously until the supply of slipware (wares of coarse red clay decorated with a white liquid clay known as slip) and other pre-industrial earthenware began to dry up in the early 20th century. This neglect was partly because delftware was completely unrelated to fashionable Staffordshire pottery. Its status continued to rise, especially after the publication of ProfessorFrederick Horace Garner's English Delftware in 1948. Even as late as the 1960s, however, it was still plentiful and fairly inexpensive. This enabled obsessive collectors such as the architect and ceramic historian Louis Lipski (1914-1979) to amass huge collections with a comparatively small outlay.

From that time onwards, collectors began to search for early pieces made for the mass market that had descended through families and been long forgotten. This dish, for example, was bought by a dealer at a country sale in 1970 and initially offered to the V&A for œ80. The Museum declined, after which it passed through Sotheby's auction house and was later acquired by the V&A for a somewhat higher market value. Since then, research into the early London potteries has firmly placed this unpretentious dish at the heart of a group of delftwares. They were probably made at the first Southwark pottery at Pickleherring Quay, when it was under the management of Richard Newnham (between about 1645 to about 1684), whose initials this dish bears. The various forms and types of decoration encompassed by this group now provide an invaluable repertoire of clues for the identification of other Pickleherring products.
Bibliographic references
  • Archer, Michael. Delftware: the tin-glazed earthenware of the British Isles. A catalogue of the collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: HMSO, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1997. ISBN 0 11 290499 8
  • Lipski and Archer, No: 32. A Caiger-Smith, Tin-glaze pottery in Europe and the Islamic World, London, 1973, p.166, Pl: 134.
  • Hildyard, Robin. European Ceramics. London : V&A Publications, 1999. 144 p., ill. ISBN 185177260X
Other number
A56. - <u>Delftware</u> (1997) cat. no.
Collection
Accession number
C.57-1971

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Record createdJanuary 29, 2000
Record URL
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