Plate

Date1674-1680

Maker William Matthews

MediumPewter

DimensionsDiam: 9 3/8"; W (rim): 1 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1980-72

DescriptionPlate: Circular with slightly inclined broad rim with cast multiple reeded edge on face; short concave booge to slightly domed well or center.
Ownership triad"*W*/*/WE" within crossed palm fronds engraved on ace of rim.Label TextThis plate is from a distinguished set, of which at least nine plates survive. Aside from this one, a single example is the collection of the Pewterers Company. Six plates from the set were formerly in the collection of Kenneth Bradshaw. The ninth, formerly in the collection of Bertie Isher and presently belonging to the Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery in Gloucestershire, has a sentimental association. Antonio de Navarro, the noted collector and benefactor of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, presented Howard Herschel Cotterell with a plate from this set as a memento of Cotterell's first visit to his Worcestershire home. Cotterell wrote, "It is one of the very rarest of English pewter plates, a fact which enhances a hundredfold both the generosity of the giver and the pleasure of its present owner."Inscription(s)Owners' initials "*W*/*/WE" within crossed palm fronds engraved on face of rim opposite pseudo hallmarks.

Mark(s)Touch mark a crown with "W" under a pellet to the left and "M" under a pellet to the right over a heart with a palm frond and intervening pellet to either side within a corded vertical oval on underside of rim (London Touch Plate I, 203; Cotterell 3141). Pseudo hallmarks of Thomas Haward of London (1) "TH" with two circles above and one below within a shaped shield, (2) leopard's head within a serrated rectangle, (3) buckle with two circles above and one below within a shaped shield, and (4) lion rampant within a serrated rectangle (Cotterell 2214, 3140).ProvenanceVendor: Richard Mundey, London.