English delft with 4 page Price Guide by John Ainsley

English delft is a quite cheaply produced clay body covered with an opaque or white glaze containing tin. Its origins were Asian but it eventually found its way to these Isles via Spain and Italy. Now named after the Dutch centre at Delft, it is customary to spell our English version with a small ‘d’.

A Brief History The Market London marriage dish painted with a nativity scene, dated 1638 in two places, the reverse We can probably trace English delft to at Throughout this feature I have selected with the potter's initials R.I. and the bride and least the late Elizabeth I period. A most approximately a hundred items of English grooms initials, 41.5cm diameter. Phillips, London. famous plate, made in London in 1600 delft and numbered them for study Jun 94. HP: £240,000. ABP: £282,300. pronounces: ‘The rose is red, the leaves are purposes. These have been placed in price grene, God save Elizabeth our Queene’. Yet order from high to low. These present a from the Meditteranean, fetched an perhaps through to the middle of the seven- serious opportunity to study the market. astounding £764! Would you now pass up teenth century its use was mainly As well as studying the individual items items like these in a boot fair or fleamarket? decorative. Even by the end of the century these pages can be checked out from a Readers may have noticed fish farmers would still be eating off pewter and statistical point of view. The combinations decorating delftware. The first occurs at No. their workers from wooden trenchers, are endless. For example a reader may study 18 and over £4,000! I have also included a drinking from cups and bowls made from auctions sources and hence get some idea of char-pot at No. 27 which fetched £1,646! Of plain, unglazed or even leather. those auctions likely to handle English delft. course in earlier centuries, before the days By the 1640s delftware potters were Or one could look at the arithmetic. For of the great sea fishing fleets there was a producing undecorated, plain white example, take the first twenty two images in huge dependence on freshwater fish, the ointment and posset pots, candlesticks etc. our study - the top end of the market. The char being a member of the trout family. Strangely, undecorated plates are rare. It total average buyers’ price is over £550,000 Why such pots have become known as char- was perhaps as late as 1680 before earth- and the average per lot over £25,000! In the pots is a mystery I haven’t yet solved. These enware became cheaper and began, because world of antiques generally, the most fish are nothing like trout and more it was so much easier to clean than , to important criterion is quality. Here eviden- resemble perch, perhaps a reader can help! replace the materials in use since the tially it is not. Here there is nothing grand, Unfortunately no one can help the fact that medieval period. but there is great charm. Here condition is about four years ago I turned down the offer almost irrelevant. If an archeologist was to of a char-dish for £400 - foolish to say the Where it was made find a seventeenth century commemorative least! I have also included three flower Because decoration had to be applied plate, smashed into twenty pieces and lay it bricks in these pages, at an average buyers’ quickly to the absorbent tin glaze, delft out in jigsaw fashion it would still be worth price of just under £1,300 see Nos. 28, 30 developed a spontaneous and unsophisti- five figures. Here are items that could be and 37. I cannot guarantee that our third cated style. Blue was the common colour displayed prominently at a boot fair, like the example is English, but its price would seem but brown, yellow, purple, green and red beaten up old cat at No. 2. And if the asking to suggest this is the case. These rare items were used. It was produced in Lambeth and price were £10-20 most would pass it by - still occasionally appear at auction and Southwark in London, particularly in and pass up £50,000! And note also that at continental versions can sell for as little as Montague Close or Thames Street: at the lower end of the market prices rarely fall £300-400. English flower bricks rarely go Bristol, (Brislington) Dublin, Limerick, below a £100. Even the more common 8.5in below £700-800. See two further flower Glasgow, Liverpool and Wincanton. It is or 9in late eighteenth century plates have a bricks at No. 48 and No. 53 which are rarely marked and such is the nature - a soft reasonable value and it is still possible to almost certainly continental. clay coated with a thin opaque tin glaze - build an economical collection, which Further themes may be left to the inter- that it is almost inevitably and always, unlike many modern collectibles should ested reader to pursue. Finally I would damaged. Edges are frequently chipped at prove a good investment. suggest that the collector who bought No. least and catalogues often don’t bother to There are other themes evident in these 82 for £141 did quite well as oval salts don’t mention this in auction descriptions. Later, pages. Take for example drug . The grow on trees. And even more surprising, when I refer to the market and the illustra- highest price is over £8,000 at No. 10 and how on earth did a trencher salt at No. 94 tions, we will be able to check out this the lowest £423 at No. 54. Extracting these fetch only £76 in September 2000 at theme. Indeed the susceptibility to damage extremes, the average drug price in these Woolley & Wallis? If this were to appear proved English delft’s downfall as it was pages is nearly £1,500! And on the same today one would expect in the right market, superseded in the second half of the theme it is incredible that the ointment pot at a hammer price of at least £150-300. eighteenth century by the new and more No. 33 fetched nearly £1,300. And at No. 43 stable light density earthenware known as a further ointment pot, called a gallipot, , but that is another story! because they originally arrived in galleys

ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 06 Ceramics

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18 13 English Delft bowl, 22.5cm. 5 Delftware 2-handled vase, Phillips, Scotland. Jun 00. painted with cattle, houses HP: £3,500. ABP: £4,116. and haystacks, mid 18thC, London Delftware marriage 21cm high. (rim chip, scroll dish painted with a nativity to one handle lacking and an scene, dated 1638 in two Rare Delftware ‘Fazackerly’ 11cm hairline) Woolley & places, the reverse with the palette puzzle jug, Bristol or Wallis, Salisbury. May 03. potter's initials R.I. and the Liverpool, c1760, 20cm. Very rare Liverpool Delft HP: £6,200. ABP: £7,292. bride and grooms initials, Sotheby’s, Billingshurst. mug, printed by Sadler, Nov 00. HP: £10,000. ABP: c1762. Phillips, London. Feb 41.5cm diameter. Phillips, 14 London. Jun 94. HP: £11,762. 01. HP: £8,200. ABP: £9,645. 19 £240,000. ABP: £282,300. 6

Set 10 dated Delft plates, 18thC English Delft flower each initialled W over IE and pot. Hamptons, Godalming. 1700, crowned cartouches 2 Mar 01. HP: £3,200. ABP: supported by griffins, 22.5cm £3,764. dia. (two with damage) Cheffins, Cambridge. Apr 03. HP: £5,500. ABP: £6,469. Rare English Delft Queen 10 Caroline commemorative 15 plate, dated 1738. Bonham’s, Bath. Jun 03. HP: £9,800. Lambeth Delft wet drug jar ABP: £11,527. dated 1679, body inscribed below the spout ‘S: Ros: Prices quoted are actual Sol:-Cv: Ag’ within baroque 20 hammer prices (HP) and cartouche and above initials Delft ‘Gardeners Arms’ the Approximate Buyer’s ‘A-G’ and the date 1679, armorial plate, dated 1747, Rare Delft tin glazed earth- Prices. (ABP) The latter flared foot, 28cm. Woolley & probably Liverpool. Peter enware cat, 17thC, 5in high. includes an average Wallis, Salisbury. Feb 03. Wilson, Nantwich. Feb 03. Halls Fine Art, Shrewsbury. premium of 15% + VAT. London delft oak leaf HP: £7,000. ABP: £8,233. HP: £2,700. ABP: £3,175. Mar 03. HP: £45,000. charger, c1690, 34.5cm. ABP: £52,931. Dreweatt Neate, Newbury. 21 11 Feb 04. HP: £5,500. 3 ABP: £6,469. 16 7

Dated delftware punch bowl, possibly Liverpool, 1775, Bristol Delft ‘Farmyard’ inscribed ‘Drive on my Jolly plate painted in blue with a Fellows, the season is begun, peacock stood before God send a Plentous Mid 18thC Delft plate, sponged trees, 22cm dia, Harvest, with the Rare English delft punch Fine London Delft pill slab, ‘Success to the John & Mary, c1740, typical rim chips. approaching Sun, March bowl, attribution Brislington, c1700. Bonham’s, Bath. John Spencer’, 23cm dia. Bearne’s, Exeter. Jun 05. HP: 17th 1775, James Duke’. c1680-90, painted in blue Jun 03. HP: £16,000. Cheffins, Cambridge. Apr 03. £2,400. ABP: £2,823. Sotheby’s, Billingshurst. Jun with 'China men in grasses', ABP: £18,820. HP: £6,400. ABP: £7,528. 00. HP: £8,500. ABP: £9,998. 34cm dia. x 15.4cm high. 22 4 Hamptons, Godalming. Mar 02. HP: £4,800. ABP: £5,646.

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8 English delft, probably English delftware barrel, Brislington, shallow dish Rare Bristol delftware blue Rare early English Delft initialled B:P, dated Oct. 20, decorated with three simple dash charger, c1700, painted armorial plate dated 1653, Deal, 1793, painted with pomegranates about a with a figure full portrait of painted in blue, yellow and grapes, vine leaves and view central motif in green, red, Prince George, initials PG, ochre with the initial letters Rare Delftware polychrome inscribed ‘the Best under the yellow enamels within a blue cracks, restoration, 35.5cm, P, M & A, 1653, 22.5cm. sparrow beak jug, probably Sun’, pedestal stem, stem re- dash border, 35cm dia, mid paper labels. Sworders, Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury. London, c1765. Sotheby’s, attached, 6.25in. Gorringes, 16thC, cracked. Bearne’s, Stansted Mountfitchet. Jul 04. Nov 01. HP: £10,200. ABP: Billingshurst. Sep 00. HP: Lewes. Dec 04. HP: £4,000. Exeter. Jun 05. HP: £2,300. HP: £8,400. ABP: £9,880. £11,997. £6,200. ABP: £7,292. ABP: £4,705. ABP: £2,705. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 06 Ceramics

28 37 23 18thC English Delft flower Early 18thC Delft flower 42 Early 18thC English delft brick, chinoiserie decoration, 33 brick. Gorringes, Bexhill. jar, prob. Bristol, inscribed, 7in. Gorringes, Lewes. Jun Sep 01. HP: £800. ABP: £941. 18thC English Delft blue and 3.5in high. (slight wear to 00. HP: £1,300. ABP: £1,529. Lambeth Delftware ointment white drug jar, titled rim) Wintertons Ltd, pot, inscribed in blue ‘Thou 38 C:CYNOSB on a winged Lichfield. Feb 02. HP: 29 Valle 21 hay Market’, 1.5in angel and scroll label, 21cm £2,200. ABP: £2,587. high. Cotswold Auction high. Phillips, Bath. May 00. HP: £650. ABP: £764. 24 Company, Gloucester. Oct 05. HP: £1,100. ABP: £1,293. 43

Lambeth delftware ballooning plate, painted Rare 18thC Delft ballooning with an ascending hot-air plate with leaf swag border, balloon within formal 9in. (2in crack and fritting) garland border, c1785, 9in. Bristol delft shallow dish 34 Gorringes, Lewes. Jul 02. Gorringes, Lewes. Nov 05. London delft blue and white decorated with a tulip and HP: £1,250. ABP: £1,470. HP: £800. ABP: £941. gallipot, 9cm high, first two buds in yellow, blue, quarter 18thC. (minor rim green and red enamels within chips) Dreweatt Neate, English delft puzzle jug of a broad stylised band and Newbury. Jun 03. HP: £650. traditional form, mid 18thC, sponged flat rim, 35cm dia, ABP: £764. c1720, stapled. Bearne’s, 18cm. (crack around base of Exeter. Jun 05. HP: £1,700. handle and small glaze ABP: £1,999. 30 chips) Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury. Jun 00. HP: 25 18thC English (?) Delft £1,000. ABP: £1,176. flower brick with flowers and 39 birds, 8in. Gorringes, Images are in descending Lewes. Jun 00. HP: £1,200. hammer price order ABP: £1,411. enabling the reader to English Delft drug jar, follow the market in c1700, inscribed 44 English delft from ‘U:NICOTIAN:’ on a label, English Delft drug jar, c1700, top to bottom. surmounted by cupids and inscribed ‘C. AURANT.’ on a shell above tassels and label, surmounted by cupids swags, 18.5cm. Sworders, and a shell above tassels and 35 Stansted Mountfitchet. Feb swags, chip to lip, cracked, English Delft wet drug jar 05. HP: £720. ABP: £846. 18cm. Sworders, Stansted painted a blue cartouche and Mountfitchet. Feb 05. HP: inscribed ‘O:Solani’, 16cm 40 31 £650. ABP: £764. high. D M Nesbit & Company, Southsea. Oct 03. 45 HP: £1,600. ABP: £1,882.

26 Lambeth delft blue and white wet drug jar, named for O:SAMBUC, 20cm high, c1780. (some chips and glaze flakes) Dreweatt Neate, English Delft wet drug jar Newbury. Jun 03. HP: painted a cartouche with 18thC Delft charger, birds and floral swags and probably Bristol, 14in. £1,100. ABP: £1,293. 18thC Dutch Delft charger, inscribed ‘O:Momord’, 14cm Gorringes, Lewes. Jun 03. polychrome painted with high. D M Nesbit & HP: £700. ABP: £823. Delftware blue/white posset chinoiserie scene depicting a Company, Southsea. Oct 03. pot and cover, late 17thC, lady on a terrace, 13.5in. HP: £960. ABP: £1,129. 19cm. (cover cracked and Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. Apr well re-glued and perhaps 00. HP: £640. ABP: £752. associated) Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury. Nov 03. HP: £1,600. ABP: £1,882. 32 27 36 41 Lambeth delft blue and white 46 Liverpool delft char-pot, wet drug jar, named for 18thC Bristol Delft punch 18thC English Delft blue and manner of Zachariah Barnes, O:LAURIN, 20cm high, bowl, interior inscribed ‘One white drug jar, title 23cm dia, 3rd Qtr 18thC. c1780. (some chips) More Bowl and Then’, 10.5in E:LENITIVUM on a winged 17th/18thC Delft drug jar, (minor rim chips) Dreweatt Dreweatt Neate, Newbury. dia. af. Tring Market angel and scroll label, 20cm marked ‘Smororu’, 8in. Neate, Newbury. Jun 02. HP: Jun 03. HP: £1,100. Auctions, Herts. May 02. high. Phillips, Bath. May 00. Denhams, Warnham. Aug 03. £1,400. ABP: £1,646. ABP: £1,293. HP: £820. ABP: £964. HP: £680. ABP: £799. HP: £600. ABP: £705. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 06 Ceramics

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53 18thC Delft blue and white Delft bleeding bowl, c1720, flower brick with floral inside painted with stylised decoration, minor damage, plants, two lug handles, Liverpool blue and white 5ins Gorringes, Bexhill. restored, 19.5cm. Sworders, English blue and white delft delft puzzle jug, c1750. Mar 02. HP: £420. ABP: £494. Stansted Mountfitchet. Feb charger, c1750, probably Wintertons Ltd, Lichfield. 05. HP: £320. ABP: £376. 54 Delft blue/white ‘masonic’ Bristol, reverse with O and X Nov 03. HP: £600. ABP: £705. 59 mug, mid 18thC, painted motifs, 36cm. Hampton & with blue floral sprays and Littlewood, Exeter. Apr 04. masonic symbols, some HP: £200. ABP: £235. damage, 14.5cm high. 18thC delftware plate, primi- Hampton & Littlewood, 69 48 tively painted with flowers, Exeter. Jul 04. HP: £260. ABP: £305. 18thC delftware flower brick, 8in, and a pair of smaller, pierced top, painted with similar plates, 7in. 64 flowers in blue, block feet, Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. Blue and white delft drug jar 5in long. Gorringes, Lewes. HP: £300. ABP: £352. probably London, mid 18thC, Nov 05. HP: £600. ABP: £705. titled ‘u apostolar’ on a fruit, Inclusion in this Section peacock and cherub label, does not guarantee an Pair of English delft plates, Bristol blue and white Delft monogram ‘ap’ in blue on English origin, although blue painted with chinoiserie charger, c1750, decorated in base, 17.5cm high. Hampton the majority of landscapes, 9in wide. the centre with an urn of & Littlewood, Exeter. Jul 04. attributions, where Andrew Hartley, Ilkley. Feb flowers, 33.5cm dia. HP: £360. ABP: £423. 49 claimed, will be safe. 02. HP: £250. ABP: £294. Sworders, Stansted 18thC delftware cress dish, 55 Mountfitchet. Feb 05. HP: concave pierced top, painted £200. ABP: £235. 60 65 with islands and foliage in 70 blue in Chinese style, 8.75in. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. HP: £600. ABP: £705.

18thC English delftware plate with polychrome floral Two 18thC delftware decoration within a scrolling Twenty three Delft blue and chargers, both painted in 18thC polychrome Delft 50 foliate manganese border, white tiles, 19thC, mainly underglaze blue, one with charger, centred a floral 12in. (chipped and repaired) depicting ships at sea and floral central design and Delftware colander bowl, top display and floral sprigs to Gorringes, Bexhill. Mar 02. figures on horseback. patterned border, the other with concentric holes, prob. border, 13.75in dia. HP: £340. ABP: £399. Rosebery’s, London. Mar 02. with terrace scene and floral London, c1760-70, 21.5cm. Dee, Atkinson & Harrison, Restoration to rim. Woolley 56 HP: £220. ABP: £258. border, 13.5in. Gorringes, Driffield. Apr 02. HP: £280. Lewes. Jan 04. HP: £190. & Wallis, Salisbury. Nov 03. ABP: £329. 66 HP: £550. ABP: £646. ABP: £223. 61 71

Mid 18thC English Delft 51 polychrome plate painted in blue manganese and yellow London Delftware barber’s with Chinese islands Early 18thC English Delft bowl, flared rim with a pavilions and trees, 36.5cm English delft polychrome blue and white charger with dia. Cheffins, Cambridge. plate, prob. Bristol, painted floral decoration, marked 10 thumb depression, first half 18thC English delftware Feb 06. HP: £340. ABP: £399. in Fazackerly manner, 23cm on base, 14in. (chipped) 18thC, 27.8cm. Woolley & plate, painted with a dia, c1760. (chips, hairline Gorringes, Bexhill. Mar 02. Wallis, Salisbury. Nov 03. gentleman in a garden in HP: £540. ABP: £635. 57 crack) Dreweatt Neate, HP: £220. ABP: £258. Newbury. Jun 03. HP: £280. blue, 7.75in. Gorringes, 52 ABP: £329. Lewes. Jun 03. HP: £190. ABP: £223. 62

Early 18thC English delft- 67 ware bowl, ‘Success to 18thC English delftware fruit Trade’, legend painted to bowl, painted with a formal Twenty square Delftware 72 interior, flowers to exterior, design of floral drapes in blue/white tiles, prob. from a 9in, and a late 18thC cream- Pair of mid 18thC Delft fireplace, 18thC, 13cm. Some blue, green and yellow ware mug, painted monogram plates painted in blue and enamels, 8.75in. Gorringes, Bristol Delft square inkwell. damage. Woolley & Wallis, - both cracked. Gorringes, manganese, 17.5cm dia. Gorringes, Bexhill On Sea. Salisbury. Nov 03. HP: £460. Lewes. Apr 05. HP: £220. Lewes. Oct 04. HP: £320. Cheffins, Cambridge. Feb 05. ABP: £258. Sep 04. HP: £180. ABP: £541. ABP: £376. HP: £280. ABP: £329. ABP: £211. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 06 Ceramics

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Two English Delft plates, both decorated with flowers, 9in. Gorringes, Lewes. Jan Mid 18thC Delft plate, c1750, Blue and white Delft plate 18thC Lambeth Delft plate 04. HP: £95. ABP: £111. 9.75in dia. Dee, Atkinson & painted with houses, plants decorated in blue, mang- Bristol delft charger c1770, Harrison, Driffield,. Dec 00. and rocks within a central anese, green and yellow with 88 painted in blue with a central HP: £170. ABP: £199. reserve, possibly Lambeth, ‘Ann Gomm’ design, 9in dia chinoiserie pattern of a (rim fritted), and an 18thC 74 11in dia., rim chips. Tring building and a tree, within a Market Auctions, Herts. May delft oval salt partly decor- ‘cracked ice’, manganese 02. HP: £150. ABP: £176. ated in blue, 4 x 3in. border and further buildings, Canterbury Auction 34cm dia. Hampton & Galleries, Kent. Dec 05. HP: Littlewood, Exeter. Jul 04. £120. ABP: £141. HP: £80. ABP: £94. 83 18thC Liverpool delft plate, 93 79 blue painted with a river scene with trees and dwelling Bristol Delft plate, painted in in the Oriental manner, oriental style with a building 8.75in dia. Dee, Atkinson & in a fenced garden within a Pair of English Delft blue Harrison, Driffield. Sep 05. cross hatched and foliate and white plates, painted HP: £95. ABP: £111. border with further buildings with buildings in landscape Delft ware plate. Great to the rim, 22cm dia, with a within a cross hatched 89 Western Auctions, Glasgow. pair of Herculaneum blue border, 17/18thC, 22.5cm Sep 05. HP: £75. ABP: £88. and white plates, loosely dia, together with two other English blue and white delft painted with foliate stems, delft plates. (4 Rosebery’s, plate probably Bristol, butterflies and bugs within a London. Dec 04. HP: £150. c1770, painted with a 94 fluted cross hatched border. ABP: £176. chinese figure seated near rocks and trees, within floral Pair of 18thC Lambeth Delft (3) Rosebery’s, London. Dec plates decorated in mang- 04. HP: £170. ABP: £199. These 100 or so examples and figure panel borders, represent only a small 28.5cm. Hampton & anese in the Neo-Classical manner with central circular 75 percentage of the delft, Littlewood, Exeter. Jul 04. Delft trencher salt, 18thC, faience and maiolica HP: £110. ABP: £129. paterae, floral swag borders, 9cm long. (rim chip 2.2 x available on our Website 9in dia. (rims chipped and 6mm) Woolley & Wallis, Gold Services at 84 fritted). Canterbury Auction Salisbury. Sep 00. HP: £65. www.antiques-info.co.uk Galleries, Kent. Dec 05. HP: ABP: £76. £95. ABP: £111. 95 90 English Delft polychrome dish, painted in blue, green andiron red with a flowering stem on a pale blue ground and within a foliate border, 34cm dia. Rosebery’s, 18thC London Delft plate, painted Chinese riverscapes London. Dec 04. HP: £170. 80 ABP: £199. in blue, (cracked) 9in. Liverpool Delft plate, mid Gorringes, Lewes. Jan 03. 76 18thC, painted with a bird HP: £110. ABP: £129. Delft blue and white plate, above a banded hedge within Mid 18thC Bristol Delft late 18thC, painted with a a peony border, rim chips, 85 polychrome dish painted with vase and floral pattern, 23cm. Sworders, Stansted eight red floral rim panels, within a stylised border, Mountfitchet. Nov 04. HP: 34cm dia. Cheffins, 25.5cm. Hampton & Littlewood, Exeter. Jul 04. £140. ABP: £164. Pair of English delft tiles, Cambridge. Feb 05. HP: Pair of mid 18thC London HP: £52. ABP: £61. painted with a running youth £90. ABP: £105. Delft plates, c1750. 81 Dee, Atkinson & Harrison, in blue against manganese, 96 Driffield,. Dec 00. HP: £160. 5in, and a similar tile in 91 ABP: £188. manganese. Gorringes, Lewes. Apr 05. HP: £110. 77 ABP: £129. 86 English Delft pearlware glazed punch bowl, centrally painted in underglaze blue Delftware blue and white Three English Delft plates, with a classical figure of chinoiserie-decorated plate and a similar polychrome- 18thC, a pair, both decorated plenty before a fenced garden Pair of 18thC delft ware Delftware blue and white decorated plate. (a.f) with a fence and flowers, and and within a flowerhead plates, painted with foliage bowl. Gorringes, Bexhill. Gorringes, Bexhill. Feb 06. another small plate, 25 and banded border, 30cm dia. in blue, red and yellow (1 Oct 05. HP: £50. ABP: £58. HP: £85. ABP: £99. 23cm. (3) Sworders, Stansted Rosebery’s, London. Sep 04. a.f.), 9in. Gorringes, Lewes. Mountfitchet. Nov 04. HP: HP: £120. ABP: £141. Apr 02. HP: £100. ABP: £117. £160. ABP: £188. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 06