A LONDON DELFT DATED BLUE AND WHITE BUTTON

According to Jonathan Horne, the present button, excavated from Tooley Street in Southwark, is likely a badge of office or connoted membership in a livery company. Only two others are known. For the example dated 1651 and painted in colors with a rampant lion flanked by the initials 'IH', see Louis L. Lipski and Michael Archer, Dated English Delftware, London, 1984, p. 423, no. 1773. The other was excavated north of the Tower of London at 8-11 The Crescent and is painted with the head of a crowned queen and likely emblematic of the Mercer's Company.