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DELF TWARE Dining and Related Wares 
               Other 
D211, D212. SALTS 
London 
(D211) Dated 1676 
(D212) 1655-1680 
(Both) H.: 7 5/8" (19.4 cm) 
BODY CLAY: Pinkish buff. 
TIN GLAZE: (D211) Somewhat trans- 
parent white with medium crazing. 
Overall, excluding footrim edge. (D212) 
White with large, deep pits, especially 
on back. Overall, excluding footrim 
edge and under shoes. 
SHAPE: Molded. Concave bottoms, 
(D211) lacking firing hole (a small hole 
has been blown between the knees), 
(D212) with small central firing hole. 
DECORATION: Painted. Head and fab- 
rics of each seated man detailed. Salt 
dishes ornamented, (D211) dated 1676 
over paraph on dish with insect corners, 
(D212) with arabesque on dish bordered 
by parallel strokes and ovals. (D211) Bot- 
tom bears sketchily drawn insect. 
Published.- (D211) Lipski and Archer, Doted 
Delftware, col. p. 171, no. 1539 (D212) Charley 
collection, p. 783 pl. 3. 
Ex coils.: (D211) Patch; T G Burn, Rous Lench. 
(D212) F L. Dickson; J. and K. Chorley. 
                                             Salts, Casters, and ajar 
The dating of each of these two rare salts may seem surprising, but modeling
differences-notably that of the shoes-indicate that they may be as much as
twenty years apart in date of manufacture. The undated figure at the right
(D212) wears long, flat, square-toed shoes with flowerlike buckles similar
to 
those on a matching example, perhaps firom the same mold, holding a dish
dated 1657. The shoulders of that figure have attached candle sockets.' A
circa 
1680 Chinese figure-inlandscape plate, found placed on the pelvis and abdo-
men of the occupant of a coffin at Saint Martin Vintry (London), has border
elements relating to the arabesque in the dish of the undated salt shown
here. 
Apparently, it "was a custom to place a receptacle of salt on a corpse
in the belief 
that it prevented swelling or purging."' 
   At least two salts of basically the shape shown here are known in seventeenth-
century English delftware, and a circa 1600 Flemish tin-glazed one exemplifies
the type that must have inspired the later English imitations! Biscuit wasters
of several seated-man salts of a very different model were excavated at Hibernia
Wharf, Southwark (near Montague Close). They consist of a man who holds a
dish and is seated on a pillow with a dog's hindquarters at the back. More
dogs 
(or lions?) are near the man's feet. 
0211, U212 
1. Archer, V&A, no. G.2. For an undated version, 
also with candle sockets, see Rackham, Glaisher, 
vol. 1, no. 14.21. With sockets, both are 8" 
(20.3 cm) tall. 
2 Britto'n Tondon  Q7  
150OLOM OI no. IIz I I    I .    , no.      . 
3. Both are undated, made without sockets, and 
in private collections (tbr one, see Some Pottery 
and Porcelain, p. 46, pl. 43a [Iiawes collectionl. 
4. Archer, V&A, no. G.2, fig. 42 (private collection). 
5. Stephenson comments (September 1998). 
236 The Longridge Collection