Images(2)

Plate

Date1739 (dated)

OriginEngland, Bristol

MediumEarthenware, tin-glazed (delft)

DimensionsDiam: 7 7/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-250,2

DescriptionOne of a set of six shallow plates without foot rings. White tin glaze decorated in deep blue, each with a stylized laurel wreath surrounding an inscription. Numbered, dated 1739, and inscribed sequentially: "(1) / What is A / Merry Man (1739)" "(2) Let him do / What he Can / (1739)"; "(3) / To entertain / His Guests / (1739)"; "(4) / With wine & / Merry Jest's / (1739)"; "(5) / But if his wife / Do frown / (1739)"; "(6) / All merryment / Goes Down / (1739)."
Label TextDated Merry Man plates were produced for a long period of time, recorded examples ranging from 1682 to 1752. The majority of the approximately 46 dated by Lipski and Archer fall within the thirty years between 1715 and 1745. No other sets of verse plates were as popular, although a six-part grace survives intact on two sets and in part on five sets that date between 1739 and 1748. The Bristol attribution is based on the profile. Fragments with similar wreaths have been excavated at Temple Back and Limekiln in Bristol. A shard with a variation of the wreath design was excavated at Wetherburn's Tavern in Williamsburg.
Inscribed"(2) Let him do / What he Can / (1739)."
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceJoseph Vizcarra, Lombard, IL