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Description: height 3 1/4 in. (8.2cm)

the slightly flared neck initialled IT and LT and dated 1679 in dark brown slip dotted in cream, the bulbous lower body finely combed in brown, all on a honey-colored ground. Area of rim repaired, small chips, minor crack to handle.

PROVENANCE

Sold, Sotheby's, London, February 21, 1989, lot 344;
The Collection of Herbert and Sylvia Jacobs, sold, Christie's, New York, January 24, 1994, lot 78, bearing collection label no. 624

EXHIBITED

Providence, Rhode Island, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island Collects Ceramics, February 7 - April 27, 1997, no. 48

NOTE

Leslie B. Grigsby, The Longridge Collection of English Slipware and Delftware, p. 121, nos. S59 and S60 illustrates examples dated 1690 and 1711 and refers to the present piece, noting "The earliest of at least fifteen such examples is a neatly combed mug inscribed IT LT 1679" . She suggests that the initials are more likely those of the owner than the potter.

For other similar mugs, see Geoffrey Godden, British Pottery, p. 22, pl. 7 for an example in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, dated 1695; and p. 28, pl. 18 for an example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, dated 1701. The mug in the Longridge Collection, dated 1690, was formerly in the Rous Lench Collection, sold at Sotheby's, London, July 1, 1986, lot 73; a second example from the Rous Lench Collection, dated 1701, was sold at Christie's, London, May 29, 1990, lot 90; and a third mug, dated 1711, was sold at Sotheby's, London, May 22, 1984, lot 5.