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DELFTWARE Dining and Related Wares 
               Dishes and Plates 
D77. PLATE 
London (Dutch decorator) or Holland 
(probably Delft) for English market 
Dated 1661 
H.: 11/8" (2.8 cm); 
W. (between flat sides): 7 1/2" (19.1 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Fine-grained pale buff. 
TIN GLAZE: White. 
LEAD GLAZE: Slightly greenish cast 
with brown speckling, over pale slip. 
Overall on exterior, excluding where 
footrim wiped clean. 
SHAPE: Molded. Low with octagonal 
well and bottom. 
DECORATION: Painted. Inscribed 
"Weilcom.my./Freinds./j661 [1661]" 
over paraph, 
Published: Lipski and Archer, Dated 
Delftware, noa 1128. 
Ex coll.: T G. Burn, Rous Lench. 
                                             Miscellaneous Inscriptions as
Primary Ornament 
This plate belongs to a distinct group with features indicating they possibly
were made by Dutch workmen active in England, or, perhaps, are Dutch in ori-
gin. The group comprises three (or four) plates matching the Longridge 
example;' one (circular) inscribed "You & i are/Earth/1661";'
plates inscribed "A 
Frindly/Feast," "Good Wyne/and Beere," and (two) "and
Wholson/Cheere"; and 
one inscribed "and mery/Gets."4 (Two delft bottles bear probably
modern "Weil- 
com my/Freinds/1661" and "You & i are/Earth/1661" inscriptions.)'
Where it can 
be ascertained, the plates are of a very fiat profile, rare for English delftware.
Inscription characteristics that indicate that a Dutchman (or Dutchmen) in
En- 
gland or Holland decorated the group include unusually poor spelling, a dieresis
on the y (see also no. D79) and an accent on the u, both commonly used in
Hol- 
land, and calligraphy quite different and markedly superior to that on 
contemporary inscribed English plates.' 
    Also relevant are two other plates with English inscriptions. One (circular)
has the rhyme "heer is Lettel cheer/but you are welcom/heer." The
other (octag- 
onal) is of second quality and bears the Merryman verse line "(3) to
entertayne/ 
his gefs" (see no. D79).1 Both were excavated from the same privy in
Delft and, 
considering the enormous quantity of Dutch tin-glazed earthenware exported
to England and the lack of evidence for equivalent imports, are likely of
local 
production. 
1. 1 ipski and Archer, Dated Delfitware, 
nos. 112, 112A, 112C. 
2. Britton, London, no. 69 (Museum of 
London collection). 
3. For three, see Stoner and Elvans adver- 
tisement, The Connioisseur, December 1, 
1917, pp. VIII, IX; for the fourth, 1em- 
ming, Lambeth Delft, p. 195. 
4. Private collection. 
5. Itorne, Collection, pt. 15, no. 415, 
remarking upon objects in Lipski and 
Archer, Dated Delftware, nos. 1488-1489. 
6. See van Dam, Gedateerd Delfts, no. 17, 
for 1683 Dutch plates with pious and 
humorous verses and the letters W and y 
(with an umlaut) notably similar in style. 
van Drecht comments (April 17, 19981: 
The use of a paraph is virtually unknown 
on Dutch delftware, and the glaze and 
shape of the Longridge dish are not Dutch. 
7. Scholten, van Drecht, p. 33, 
nos. 221, 222. 
110 The Longridge Collection