Page 30

 
D ELF TWA RE Dining and Related Wares 
              Dishes and Plates 
D1. DISH 
Southwark, London 
Montague Close or Pickleherring 
Dated 1633 
H.: 2 1/8" (5.4 cm); L.: 19 3/8" (49.2 cm); 
W.: 16 1/8" (40.9 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Buff with small red 
inclusions. 
TIN GLAZE: White. That on exterior 
lower in tin content with greenish areas 
and touches of manganese purple. 
SHAPE: Molded. Deep-welled dish 
with unevenly smoothed exterior. 
DECORATION: Painted and relief, 
Fecundity scene with Venus and putti in 
interior. Inscribed 1633 STEPHEN: 
FORTVNE:&:ELIZABETH." Border com- 
posed of masks, vases of flowers (or 
fruit baskets?), circular depressions with 
flowers, and oval depressions with 
artemisia leaves. 
Published: Apollo 12 (July-December 1935), 
p. 11; Lipski and Archer, Dated Delftware, 
no. 90; Little, Little by Little, p. 78, fig. 97; 
Grigsby, Dated Longridge Delftware and 
Slipware, pp. 878-879, pl. 4. 
Ex coils.: Lord Revelstoke; B. K. 
and N. F Little. 
1. L.ipski and Archer, Dated Delftware, 
nos. 90-126 passim. 
2. Burman, Motifs 2, p. 105; Archer, V&A, p. 109; 
Britton, Palissy, pp. 172-173. For French exam- 
pies, see Morley-Fletcher and Mcllroy, Pictorial 
History, p. 178, no. 1; Kassebaunm Collection, 
no. 109; Archer, V&A, p. 110, fig. 27. Archer 
comments (19981: Palissy's successors did make 
fecundity dishes. 
3. Archer, V&A, no. A.16, pp. 110, 561. 
4. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, collection 
(no. 61.1240); Archer, V&A, no. A.61; Peirce, 
Cocke Collection, no. 1; Minneapolis Institute 
collection (no. 96.36.1); Allen Museum collec- 
tion; Sotheby's (L), November 15, 1994, lot 112. 
For a 1635 fecundity dish with florets and 
artemisia leaves but no mattress striping, see 
Lipski and Archer, Dated Delftware, no. 91. 
5. Lipski and Archer, Dated Delftware, no. 137; 
Rackham, Glaisher, vol. 2, pl. 96, no. 1408. 
6. Burlington (1914), pl. 38, Case D, no. 57 (then 
in the Manderson collection). 
30 The Longridge Collection 
I1 
Iý 
                                             "Palissy-Type" Wares
T   his important "fecundity dish" is the first of three in the
Longridge collection 
(see nos. D2, D3) and is the earliest of nearly twenty dated examples, the
latest 
being from 1697.1 English versions derive from sixteenth-century, French,
lead- 
glazed earthenware dishes, perhaps after metalwork originals, that often
display mottled grounds over much of the area outside the central reserve.
Tra- 
ditionally such pieces have been attributed to Bernard Palissy (d. 1590)
-explaining the popular title "Palissy dishes" for English examples-but
though 
his factory did produce fine relief-decorated pottery imitated by English
delft- 
ware manufacturers (see nos. D4, D5, D6), there is no evidence of its making
dishes depicting the fecundity scene. Based on the close similarity between
relief 
motifs, it has been thought, perhaps mistakenly, that molds were taken from
the 
French originals to create the English dishes.' 
    The date on the dish shown here indicates that it was made in Southwark
at 
Montague Close or Pickleherring. Although rim fragments of fecundity dishes
have been unearthed at Rotherhithe, there is no evidence of that factory's
being 
active before 1636.:' The Longridge dish fits into a distinct group of examples,
all but one of which have in the rim depressions florets alternating with
artemisia leaves. The leaf motif represents one of the Eight Precious Things
and 
is derived from Chinese export porcelain ornament. All dishes in the group
have 
a distinctive striped edge to the mattress on which the figure is reclining."
Some 
examples appear to be from different molds, and the constituents of the group
represent the produce of more than one factory (see nos. D2, D3). A somewhat
bizarre cousin to relief-decorated versions is a smooth-surfaced, circular
fecun- 
dity dish dated 1675 and depicting a variation on the central scene within
a 
foliate and grotesque border.' Also perhaps unique is an oval version with
the 
usual raised central scene within a smooth outer border painted with pome-
granates and grape clusters.'