Punch bowl

Dateca. 1770

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft / delftware)

DimensionsOH: 4 3/8"; DIAM: 10 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1963-194

DescriptionShallow-sided bowl with slightly tapering foot ring. Bluish tin glaze decorated in shades of blue: on the exterior, extensive floral and leaf sprays; on the interior, an unusual Chinese border and, in the center, a woman standing in a paneled room on a checkered floor, above the inscription "Ann the Daughter of Anthony & Ann Couch, was Born the, 20 day of January, 1755." Surrounding the central design, another inscription: "Ann Couch is my Name and England is my Nation, S. Ives is my Dwelling place, and Christ is my salvation."
Label TextThe interior of this bowl depicts a fashionably attired young woman and the inscription "Ann the Daughter of Anthony / & Ann Couch, was Born the, 20 / day of January, 1755." Surrounding the central design, another inscription reads "Ann Couch is my Name and England is my Nation, St. Ives is my Dwelling place, and Christ is my Salvation."

The date on the bowl refers to the time of Ann Couch's birth, not to the date of manufacture. An Ann Couch was christened in St. Ives, Cornwall, on March 23, 1755, two months after the birthdate given on the bowl. Michael Archer points out that the inscription around the interior of the bowl is in the first person and that the person illustrated on the bowl is not an infant, but a child or young adult. If this portrait of Ann was done somewhere between ten and twenty years after her birth, that would correspond chronologically with the decoration on the bowl.

A bowl at the City Museum of Liverpool dated 1767 has on its interior, within a slightly scalloped circle, a room with wall and floor treatment very similar to this one. The inscription on the lower segment of the circle appears to be by the same hand, in particular the unusual treatment of the letters c and t, as well as the overall feel of the letters. Although the flowers on the Liverpool bowl are painted in polychrome, the rendering of the larger flowers is somewhat similar. More similar are the flowers on the exterior of another bowl from the Liverpool City Museum dated 1770, and the interior rim band is identical. The Liverpool attribution is based on the decoration.
InscribedInscription "Ann the Daughter of Anthony / & Ann Couch, was Born
the, 20 / day of January, 1755." Surrounding the central design, another
inscription: "Ann Couch is my Name and England is my Nation, St. Ives
is my Dwelling place, and Christ is my Salvation."
MarkingsNo
ProvenanceTilley & Co., London