Large English Antique Slipware Decorated Earthenware Dish, Bearing The Name Of Thomas Toft (active before 1663 – Died 1689) & A Lion & Unicorn Supporters, The Cypher of Charles II & A Depiction Of Him Hiding In An Oak Tree – 2 of 2

Could it be or not?

That is the puzzlement we are presented with, with this dish.

Copies of Thomas Toft’s work are rare. So are the originals. Copies of his work exist, and were made by the well-known English ceramacist, John Hudson, in the 20thC. His work always bears the stamp “JH”. This very large and impressive dish, the second of two we are offering for sale. It doesn’t bear the mark of the copiest as we would normally expect. The earthenware body is old and the lead glaze has age related marks.

This dish, along with the other, were discovered in a farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales. Sadly, there is no provenance beyond the farmhouse that they were recently acquired from. 

If they were proven to be by the hand of Toft himself, they could be deemed to be “significant” in both rarity and value. The last one found, with provenance, sold at auction in 2013, realising a sum in excess of £51,000 including premium.

Alas, we cannot be certain of the history or origin of this dish or its companion. All we can say is that if both dishes are by Toft himself, someone will be getting an absolute bargain at our retail list price offering! If they have been made by someone else, whatever their backstory, they are exceptional and our list price, offers us a small margin above what we paid. In our view, we were happy to pay a large sum of money for both. We will leave the purchaser to make up their own mind about this dish and the other, should they wish to acquire both. Neither of these dishes have ever been through the saleroom and are “market fresh”.

The dish is typical of Toft’s designs. A red earthenware dish or charger, with trailed slip decoration, including the name of the Staffordshire potter ‘THOMAS TOFT’.

There are numerous large dishes from the late seventeenth century inscribed with the name Thomas Toft. This North Staffordshire potter, possibly of Scandinavian origin, used traditional pottery techniques but more ambitiously than any potter up to that time. Here, a white clay slip was applied over the upper surface of the charger; the design was then drawn and filled in with dark brown clay slips. The honey-colored lead glaze was applied to this decorated surface only, not to the underside, turning the stark white ground a pale yellow and harmonizing with the earth colours of the design. 

A lion and a unicorn, supporters of the royal coat of arms of England and Scotland, are rampant to each side of an oak tree enclosing a young face within its spreading branches, with the letters “CR,” for Charles Rex, below. This reference is to a popular true story that Charles II related to Samuel Pepys in 1680. After his defeat at the battle of Worcester in 1651, the young king climbed into an oak in Boscobel Wood to escape OIiver Cromwell’s soldiers, and one of the men passed directly beneath the tree in which he was hiding.

An almost identical example to this dish is held in the collection of The British Museum.

Provenance – Unknown.

Condition – Please refer to the images. There is a very small but stable hairline crack to the upper right rim approx 8 cm in length running from the outer rim edge to the inner rim edge. A further detailed condition report is available upon request.

Size – Diameter 50 cm x Depth 10 cm (19 2/3″ x 3 7/8″)