Lot 17. A Staffordshire slipware dish, circa 1700-1720; 24cm diam. Estimate £ 12,000 - 18,000 (€ 13,000 - 20,000). © Bonhams.

Press-moulded with a figure on horseback, probably a Highwayman, holding a musket and sword, picked out in brown and chestnut slips against the cream-coloured ground, a rouletted formal border inside the piecrust rim, two holes for suspension at the top.

Provenance: Thomas G. Burn, Rous Lench Collection, Christie's sale 29 May 1990, lot 73
Syd Levethan, Longridge Collection, Christie's sale 24 January 2011, lot 44.

Literature: Illustrated by Leslie B. Grigsby, the Longridge Collection of English Slipware and Delftware (2000), fig.S7.

Exhibited: The Merchant's House, Marlborough, Wiltshire, 2011-2018

Note: A very similar dish with a wavy rim is illustrated by Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of the Glaisher Collection (1987), pl.16A and Early Staffordshire Pottery (1951), pl.20. It bears the initials 'WA' in low relief close to the head of the horse. Another related example is illustrated by Ross E Taggart, Catalogue of the Burnap Collection (1967), no.12. There are some similarities in style to dishes decorated with George and the Dragon.

Bonhams London. The Olive Collection, 31 Jan 2019