Page 66

 
SLIP WARE      Dining and Related Wares 
               Dishes and Plates 
511. DISH 
Burslem, Staffordshire 
Signed "Sam[uel] Malkini 
The maker/in bur[reversed s]lain" 
Dated 1712 
H.: 2 1/2" (6.4 cm); 
Danr.: 14 1/4" (36.2 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Mediurr grained orange- 
buff with inclusions. 
LEAD GLAZE: Overall on interior 
SHAPE: Press molded. Rim serrated by 
impressing with small tooL. Shape A. 
SLIP GROUND: Cream-colored. Overall 
on interior, 
DECORATION: Relief-molded and 
trailed. Clockface dated 1712. Dial in- 
scribed "Sam[uel] Malkin/The maker/in 
bur[reversed s]Ia/m." Lower edge inscribed 
"The:Chri[reversed s]tian[reversed s]: 
dyal:or:a/Cheap:Watch:for:a:poor:Man." 
Borders composed of a square, winged 
heads, flowering plants, and concentric 
circles. 
Published Cooper, Reflections, p 137, 
no. 4. Morley-Fletcher and Mcllroy. 
Pictorial History, p 263. pl 5: Grigsby, 
Dated Longridge Delft ware and 5lipware. 
pp 882-883, pl 14 
Exhibited: Bristol Museum. 
Ex coils.: Mrs , M Morgan: T G. Burn, 
Rous Lench 
                                              Scinrtiel Malkin's Relief Molded
Wores 
he inscription on this important dish and on one other fihonl the same mold,
provides the ffill name of Samuel Malkin and identifies him as their maker.
Based 
partly on the use of the initials "SM" and stylistic similarities
to the clockface 
dishes, Malkin also is credited with making other models of dishes. 
    Matching this clocklace dish is a sherd inscribed "Chrilreverse
sIt .../... p 
W ...." friom slightly left of'center on the lower edge of' the dish.
The fragment 
was unearthed at Massey Square in Burslem and links that location to Saiiuel
Malkin's lfctory. Another fragment from the site shows a portion of what
appears to he the same sentiment, "... [Cheap?l ... /For:a ... /imia
.... " this time 
in relief on the center of the dish. No matching intact dishes are known.'
    The words "a Cheap Watch for a poor Man" on the clockface dishes
may lie 
a tongue-in-cheek reference to middle-class owners, who, if unable to afford
real clocks, still could purchase fine slipware dishes. The (late on the
ILongridge 
dish is read hy combining "17," from helow the clock hand, with
"12" o'clock to 
arrive at 1712. (It has been suggested that 1729, 17 added to 12, is an alterna-
tive reading, but this seems an awkward recording style, even considering
more typical Malkin dish dates.) Another potter perhaps looked to this type
of' 
dish when producing a somewhat less ambitious press-molded dish on which
a six-legged turtle(?) points toward a sunftce at 12 o'clock.' The initials
"IC" in 
a square helow the single clock hand and the dial's roman numerals foirm
the 
only inscriptions. 
ilra ents of two r llodekr  of slipware dishes  bearing rth(e  rire l Sertim
eni  as ihatr scrll orl tre Lronrnridge 
clorkrtae dish. Fxciavared Massey Square  nir'. Bll'rlll, Sloke-oll-'rerrr
. Court'resy Poiteries Musi'lrn 
and Art (allery, Ilanlev. Sroke-onn 'renu  iArIiaeology Seiliorun  ollertion,
n . 200P39). 
1. See Frooper, Slipware Dishes, pi. 250. loi the 
I/intil Muiseiun molleriion (no. 195F'7-5.1) dish 
with tile lower inr i'iptiori parrially rephlaed. 
22. Ireirose. Archaeology. Il). 68 70. For Ihle 
xavaledrr  lanr'lnlell'S'  See Sro]ke-or l-'nlorin 
(Archaeologi y Sciont uolle uClior , no. 2001'39. 
3. Girigsby, Slipware, pIl. 53. 
66 The Longridge Collection