Lot 67. A London delftware 'Green Man' charger, circa 1695-1700; 35.8cm diam. Estimate £ 15,000 - 25,000 (€ 17,000 - 28,000). © Bonhams.

Of traditional charger shape with a slightly everted 'blue dash' rim, painted in blue and green outlined in black with a primitive 'Wild Man' holding a club over his shoulders, naked save for a short skirt of leaves to protect his modesty, flanked by simple trees with yellow and russet fruit, the foreground striped in similar colours, the lead glazed back strongly tinted in green.

Provenance: G. F. Glenny, Sotheby's sale 29 May 1956, lot 32
With Jonathan Horne, 1998, published in A Collection of English Pottery Pt. XVIII, fig.518
Syd Levethan, Longridge Collection.

Literature: Illustrated by Leslie B. Grigsby, the Longridge Collection of English Slipware and Delftware (2000), fig.D69.

Note: The Longridge catalogue refers to only two other recorded examples of this subject. One is in the Robert Hall Warren Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, illustrated by Anthony Ray (1968), pl.4, fig.12. The other was in the Simon Sainsbury Collection, sold by Christie's 18 June 2008, lot 170. Both of these show the same image but in reverse compared to the present lot, with different trees and with the clubs painted in green.

The subject has been identified variously as the 'Green Man' or the 'Wild Man'. Essentially these characters from mediaeval folklore are one and the same, a mythical inhabitant of the woods and mountains linked to May Day festivities.

Bonhams London. The Olive Collection, 31 Jan 2019