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Lot Essay
The identity of the original owner of the present mug remains elusive. It is unusual however that two surviving named and dated delftware mugs appear to be for the same recipient. A powdered-blue ground mug in the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham is named for THOMAS HUNT AND MARY 1638, inscribed within a shaded elongated cartouche similar to the present mug. When this cup has appeared at auction before, reference has been made to a Thomas Hunt (1611-1683) born in Worcester who entered Pembroke College, Oxford, proceeding to his M.A. in 1636. He later became Master of the Church School of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, London. It has also been noted that the Parish of Castle Eden near Durham, is recorded by Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of England published in 1848. Harriet Carlton Goldweitz, ibid. points out the significance of this cup in the context of fragments excavated in Jamestown, Virginia which put the cup in a contemporary context. Frank Britton, London Delftware, London, 1987, p. 121 illustrates three vessels, including a caudle-cup, with similar manganese decoration which were excavated from a cesspool at Broadway, Hammersmith. There were business connections between the London delft manufacturers and Virginia which would explain the appearence of similar wares in Colonial America. Michael Archer highlights the examples of Sir Thomas Smith who was a partner in a London pot-house and treasurer of the Virginia Company until 1619 and Sir John Harvey, Governor of Virginia in the second quarter of the 17th century, who had links Christian Wilhelm, a potter at Picklherring Quay, Southwark. See Michael Archer and Brian Morgan, 'Fair as China Dishes, English Delftware from the Collection of Mrs. Marion Morgan and Brian Morgan', Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1977, p. 11. Perhaps a Colonial recipient should not be discounted.