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A King holding an Orb and Sceptre
Potter: Simpson, Ralph
Earthenware dish slip trailed on the front with a king holding an orb and sceptre, and with the name RALPH SIMPSON under lead-glaze.
Buff earthenware, thrown, the front coated with cream slip, slip-trailed in dark ochre and dark brown, and 'jewelled' in cream, under yellowish lead-glaze; the reverse is undecorated. The dish is circular with a wide rim, deep curved sides and flat central area. The well is decorated with a three-quarter figure of a king wearing a crown and holding an orb and sceptre, with on each side of him, wavy leaf and almond-shaped chain motifs. All the motifs are edged with cream 'jewelling'. On the rim there is a continuous trellis border interrupted at the bottom by a panel bearing the slip-trailed name, RALPH SIMPSON'.
History note: Lady Harvey, 19 Marsefield Gardens, South Hampstead, N.W; on moving to Scotland, she sold her collection en bloc to Mr Stoner from whom her slipwares were bought for £650 on 17 June1912 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge.
Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest
Diameter: 43.7 cm
Height: 6.2 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
17th Century, Late
Charles II
Circa
1661
-
1685
The King was probably intended to be Charles II as the figure on a comparable dish by Thomas Toft is initialled ‘CR’.
Decoration
composed of
slip
( dark ochre, dark brown and cream)
Front
composed of
lead-glaze
( yellowish)
Throwing : Buff earthenware, thrown, the front coated with cream slip, slip-trailed in dark ochre and dark brown, and 'jewelled' in cream, under yellowish lead-glaze; the reverse is undecorated.
Accession number: C.214-1928
Primary reference Number: 73157
Old object number: 3530
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "A King holding an Orb and Sceptre" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/73157 Accessed: 2025-05-02 16:10:56
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/73157
|title=A King holding an Orb and Sceptre
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-05-02 16:10:56|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-73157
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa7/C_214_1928.jpg"
alt="A King holding an Orb and Sceptre"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">A King holding an Orb and Sceptre</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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