Advertising Plate, Ship Tavern

Item Number: P2
Shape Type: Plate
Pattern Name: Standard Willow
Date: c. 1818-1834
Dimensions:  Diameter: 10 in
Maker: James & Ralph Clews, Cobridge, Staffordshire
Maker’s Mark: Printed and Impressed

An earthenware advertising plate printed in blue underglaze with the Standard Willow pattern with two cartouches in the border: One reading “WR – Dinners, Drest and Choice, Wines,” the other reading “Ship.Tavern, Water Lane.” [Note: the word “Drest” means “prepared” or, in contemporary terms, “catered.”] “WR” are the initials of the owner, William Rusby. James & Ralph Clews, Cobridge, Staffordshire. Plate has both impressed and printed marks, Godden1988 mark 918. Below the impressed mark is “33” which may be a date mark = 1833. Round indented shape, 10 inches in diameter. Featured in Rogers2004, p.84, and in Chinoiserie: Printed British Ceramics in the Chinese Style, 1750-1900, p. 208, by Halliday and Zeller, 2018. See also “Public Houses and Their Place on Blue Printed Transferware,” Loren Zeller, TCC Bulletin, Winter 2008, and  his article “More on the Ship Tavern, Water Lane Advertising Plate in Publick Houses and Their Place on Blue Printed Transferware”, TCC1999- Winter 2008 Vol. XV, No. 3, pp. 8-9. This plate was included in the 2019-2020 exhibition titled Staffordshire Hospitality: Ceramics that cater to the World, at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.  It was recently purchased through an Art Fund Grant by the Potteries Museum.
Condition: Very good. Tiny spot of discoloration on the rim, seen in the image.