Wash basin in the form of a scallop shell: C.1338-1928

Titles

Wash basin in the form of a scallop shell

Maker(s)

Pottery: unidentified London pottery (Probably)
Pottery: Brislington Pottery (Possibly)

Entities

• Wash basin
• basin

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• English delftware

Description

Earthenware, press-moulded, tin-glazed and painted in blue and manganese-purple; inscribed 'D/D:E/1683'.

Buff earthenware, press-moulded in the form of a scallop shell, with a pierced hole in the centre of the lower end, tin-glazed overall, and painted in blue and manganese-purple. 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 ridges and edges of the shell are outlined in blue, and there are blue spots on its rounded lower part. 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. Around the curved edge of the shell there is a scalloped line.

Notes

History note: Bought from John Bowden of Wardour Street, for £10 about 1896, by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

17th Century, Late
Charles II
Production date: dated AD 1683 : dated

Note

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)

School or Style

Baroque