Object Type
This earthenware dish is of the type known as delftware, with decoration painted in blue on a white tin glaze. (The best tin-glazed earthenware in the 17th century was made at the Dutch town of Delft, and the name became synonymous with tin-glazed wares.) Commemorative delftware dishes painted with royal portraits became popular during the reign of Charles I (1625-1649), and were produced under successive monarchs until the early 18th century.

People
This dish was one of two items of delftware in Horace Walpole's famous art collection at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, as recorded in his catalogue of 1784, A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole .... As such, it represents one of the first instances of collectors and antiquarians considering delftware worthy of interest. Although tin-glazed earthenware was still in production in Britain at this time, it did not attract wider interest among collectors until the second half of the 19th century. Walpole had an extensive collection of portrait prints in addition to his historic and modern ceramics, and it was perhaps the portraits on the dish that interested him.

Historical Associations
Charles II (reigned 1660-1685) married Catherine of Braganza in 1662. It is likely that this dish, which carries the portraits of the couple, would have been made to commemorate the event. However, tin-glazed earthenware dishes painted with individual portraits of Charles and Catherine are known from the early 1680s. This shows that the popularity of this type of commemorative item continued throughout their reign.