Page 36 - Bottles, Early Pottery & Pot Lids

XXX. ENGLEFIELD BERKSHIRE 1767 DATED ENGLISH STONEWARE TANKARD. 8.3ins tall, 5.3ins
top diam. Mid to light variating salt glaze. Impressed below rim (various damages - chips/ hairline,
stable?) Mr Steward at Englefield Berks, and with impressed date 1767. The top row of sprigs, including
crude trees and cottages, features a sign board sprig displaying a shield with chevron and three crowned
hammers. Usually thought of as representing pub-name boards, this one is the device of the Worshipful
Company of Blacksmiths and would indicate a Blacksmith’s Arms sign board. In this case the likely
owner,Thomas Steward, who died in
1807, was a blacksmith at Englefield
(see Guy Burch’s article in BBR 182).
The super crude hunting sprigs running
ani-clockwise and the lower flared foot
rim support an attribution to the London
‘Factory B’ pottery. References: Similar
sprigs see Hildyard & Hughes English
Brown Stoneware p 47, two more in
Hildyard Browne Muggs p56. DD
Collection. Examples of these early large
tankards very rarely come on to the open
market, most from the London area, this,
of course, from Berkshire. NR. £2,000-
3,000+