A Plate painted with a peahen, probably Cambrian Pottery, circa 1795-1810
This lead-glazed pottery plate is painted in ochre and brown Pratt-type colours with a peahen amongst sponged green branches. The moulded border at the rim is painted green. Unusually for peafowl decoration on pottery, the bird has no legs and faces to the right instead of to the left.
There is an impressed mark to the base.
This style of painted peafowl decoration belongs to the so-called ‘Spartacus’ Group (Group I) and is attributed to the Cambrian Pottery in Swansea, Wales.
Condition: Historically, a small section of the rim has been out and repaired with one staple. This appears to have been subsequently removed and the plate restored with some overpainting between the rim and the cavetto. There are a few small areas on the reverse where the lead glaze has crawled during manufacture, and also crazed. An area to the underside of the rim was also misshapen prior to firing. There are two tiny glaze flakes to the rim.
Dimensions: 24.4 cm
Feathers and Foliage: The Life and Times of the Pearlware Peafowl, George and Mickey Deike (Shalimar Farm, 2005).
A Collector’s History of English Pottery, Griselda Lewis (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1987).
English Pottery and Porcelain, Geoffrey Wills (Guinness, 1969).