English Delftware scallop shell wash basin

An image of Wash basin in the form of a scallop shell. English Delftware. Unidentified London pottery, or Brislington Pottery, possibly. In the middle are the initials and date 'D/D:E/1683' with three small lozenges below within a scrolled cartouche outlined in mananese-purple. The flanges of the shell are decorated by a mermaid, a cross between a merman and a hippocamp, two shells (?) and a sea hound, and along the lower edge there is a row of four groups of scrolls separated by small circles. Buff earthenware, press-moulded, tin-glazed, and painted in blue and manganese-purple, height, whole, 7.6 cm, length, whole, 44.2 cm, width, whole, 42.4 cm, dated 1683. Baroque. Production Notes: The basin was probably made in London or possibly at Brislington. At the date of production potteries were operating in the London area at Southwark, Lambeth, and Wapping. The mould was probably after, or taken from, an earlier silver prototype such as an example of 1610-11 accompanied by a mermaid-shaped ewer in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.10 & A-1974).

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Wash basin in the form of a scallop shell. English Delftware. Unidentified London pottery, or Brislington Pottery, possibly. In the middle are the initials and date 'D/D:E/1683' with three small lozenges below within a scrolled cartouche outlined in mananese-purple. The flanges of the shell are decorated by a mermaid, a cross between a merman and a hippocamp, two shells (?) and a sea hound, and along the lower edge there is a row of four groups of scrolls separated by small circles. Buff earthenware, press-moulded, tin-glazed, and painted in blue and manganese-purple, height, whole, 7.6 cm, length, whole, 44.2 cm, width, whole, 42.4 cm, dated 1683. Baroque. Production Notes: The basin was probably made in London or possibly at Brislington. At the date of production potteries were operating in the London area at Southwark, Lambeth, and Wapping. The mould was probably after, or taken from, an earlier silver prototype such as an example of 1610-11 accompanied by a mermaid-shaped ewer in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.10 & A-1974).

Image data

Accession Number: C.1338-1928
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/45.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Andrew Norman
Image height: 1024 pixels
Image width: 883 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 868.60kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 200
Fnumber: 45/1
Captured: 2012:05:28 15:08:14

Key words

17th Century Baroque basin blue and white Brislington Pottery cartouche clam shell dated Delftware earthenware English English Delftware Fitz_AA glazed marine mermaid merman moulded press moulded Restoration scallop shell scalloped scalloped edge sea shell shells Stewart Period Stuart Period tin-glazed wash basin

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            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "English Delftware scallop shell wash basin"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2898675985 Accessed: 2024-11-14 17:10:44

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            University of Cambridge}}

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