An English delft polychrome dated royal commemorative mug

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MARGARET CADMAN, 1907 - 2001 Margaret Rigby was born in 1907 in Lancashire, the daughter of a local doctor; she became Margaret Cadman on her marriage in the 1920s. Her early interest in collecting and antiques came through attending local auctions, which in turn fostered a particular interest in European pottery and porcelain. The post-war years saw Margaret's passion for collecting grow into a small business. Having moved to Brighton in the late 1940s, she began visiting Harrods and Fortnum & Mason's regularly, taking a basket full of small antiques and collectables to offer the famous stores. Over time, the basket was replaced by a hamper as her business grew. Soon, premises became necessary; Margaret opened shops in Beauchamp Place and Ship Street in Brighton. Both shops were cluttered with pottery, porcelain, tea-caddies, jewellery and other small antiques. Margaret soon established a reputation and mixed in the well-heeled society of London and the South Coast. Her reputation was further enhanced by her participation in some of the better antiques fairs. The 1950s saw her as a regular exhibitor at Grosvenor House and the Brighton Antiques Fairs. The heyday of Cadman Antiques saw the Brighton shop run by Margaret and the London shop by her second husband, Major Stewart-Brown, although the style and taste of both shops was Margaret's. Having scaled-down her business by the mid 1970s, rather than retire, for the next twenty years Mrs Cadman was a regular at local antiques fairs. With her trusty basket in hand, her career in the antiques business seemed to have come full circle. THE MARGARET CADMAN COLLECION OF BRITISH CERAMICS This selection of British ceramics, although forming just a fraction of the number of pieces removed from Margaret Cadman's home at Marine Parade in Brighton, relects the best of her fifty years of collecting and dealing. The best of the 18th Century British factories from Chelsea to Lowestoft are well-represented. Examples range from the decorative to the esoteric, and the range of some of the pieces collected, for example the Caughley and Lowestoft 'toy' wares, well reflect the wide variety available on the market in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

An English delft polychrome dated royal commemorative mug

1660, SOUTHWARK, PROBABLY PICKLEHERRING QUAY

Details

An English delft polychrome dated royal commemorative mug
1660, Southwark, probably Pickleherring Quay
The mug with loop handle and of cylindrical form painted in blue, manganese, green, yellow and ochre with a bust-length portrait of King Charles II turned slightly to his left, crowned, wearing armour and partly draped in ermine, a medal suspended around his neck, the portrait flanked by the divided inscription C D 2 and R 1660 each above a flourish (three short cracks, one with associated chip to upper rim, usual slight chipping and flaking to rims)
3 7/8 in. (9.9 cm.) high

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

This previously unrecorded mug belongs to a rare group of wares which commemorate Charles II's ascension to the throne in 1660, rather than his coronation of 1661.

The only other closely related example is at Colonial Williamsburg. See John C. Austin, British Delft at Williamsburg (Williamsburg, 1994), p. 101, no. 83, where reference is made to shards of a similar mug found on the Pickleherring Quay site, consequently favouring this attribution. See also Louis L. Lipski and Michael Archer, Dated English Delftware (London, 1984), p. 166, no. 746; and F. H. Garner, English Delftware (London, 1948).

The above example in Williamsburg which was formerly in the collection of Geoffrey E. Howard, sale Sotheby's, 24 July 1956, lot 74 (£320 to Tilley), is illustrated by G.E. Howard, Early English Drug Jars, (London, 1931), pl. 19, no. 66, and was exhibited at the Charles II Loan Exhibition, January 1932, Cat. no. 723 and the ECC Exhibition and illustrated in the Catalogue (1948), pl. 2, no. 9.

Another of similar form, with the more usually found portrait of the monarch within an arch, is in the Museum of London (A.4946) and is illustrated by Frank Britton, London Delftware (1987), p. 123, pl. 72, and p. 86, col. pl. H.

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