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Tobit, Anna and the Goat
Production: Den Salm Pottery (Possibly)
Tin-glazed earthenware painted in blue, two shades of dull orange, and manganese-purple with Tobit, Anna, and the goat; dated '1572 A+' on the reverse
Buff earthenware tin-glazed on both sides, and painted on the front in blue, two shades of dull orange (ochre) and manganese-purple. The flat centre of a circular plate with part of the footring pierced by a suspension hole. On the front on the left, Anna, dressed in two shades of orange, is standing with a goat behind her, and part of a building outlined in blue. On the right, Tobit, seated and dressed in manganese-purple and dull orange, raises both his hands towards her. On the reverse, inside the footring is the date '1572 A+' with a zig-zag above and below, and outside the footring, three stripes radiating outwards, all painted in blue.
History note: Cambridge; found in 1897 in Christ's Lane, beneath some old cottages in a well by the side of an old clunch wall; the find site was recorded as No. 20 in a notebook recording the pottery finds of Mr S.J. Freeman, who gave the fragment in 1897 or 1898 to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge, with the further information that the find site was opposite to the old Post Office.
Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest
Depth: 1.2 cm
Length: 8.7 cm
Width: 7.6 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
16th Century, third quarter#
Production date:
dated
AD 1572
The scene on this fragment from the middle of a plate or dish is an episode in the Old Testament Book of Tobias, chapter II, 19-23, which Protestant churches place in a separate book known as the Apocrypha. Tobias' mother Anna, was obliged to earn money by weaving cloth because her husband Tobit has been blinded. One day she sold a length of cloth and the buyer gave her goat in addition to her payment. When she reached home her husband thought that she had stolen the goat and demanded that she return it to the owner. Anna was justifiably angry because her husband thought she could be a thief, and she berated him for his lack of charity.
The source of the design on the fragment was an engraving of Tobit, Anna and the Goat made by Cornelis Metsys (1510/1511-1556/1557) about 1550. The same scene is depicted on the side of a large jug signed F/IAB in monogram, and dated 1562 in the Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels (inv. I.A. 5931). It is also depicted on the first of four large tile panels telling the story of Tobias accompanied by panels of ornamental designs in the ducal palace at Vila Viçosa, Portugal. Two tiles are dated 1558 and one bears the same monogram as the jug. They have been attributed to Antwerp, either to the Den Salm (The Salmon) workshop directed by Franchois Frans from 1543 to 1561/2, or to Jan Bogaerts, an Antwerp potter who became a master in 1552. Frans was succeeded as director of Den Salm by Lucas Andries from 1562 to 1573, when he was recorded in Colchester, and died in that year. His brother Jasper Andries, also a potter, had emigrated to Norwich in 1567 together with Jacob Jenson, who had moved to Aldgate in London by 1571. However, despite the presence of these Netherlandish potters in England, it seems likely that the plate would have been imported from Antwerp.
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colours
( blue, two shades of dull orange, and manganese-purple derived from metallic oxides)
Surface
composed of
tin-glaze
buff Earthenware
Tin-glazing : Buff earthenware, with pierced footring, tin-glazed, and painted in blue, two shades of dull orange, and manganese-purple
Accession number: C.2400-1928
Primary reference Number: 73449
Old object number: 3032
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 (2024) "Tobit, Anna and the Goat" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/73449 Accessed: 2024-12-22 14:10:17
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/73449
|title=Tobit, Anna and the Goat
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 14:10:17|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-73449
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Tobit, Anna and the Goat</figcaption>
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