Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 151
Fifteen Liverpool delftware theatrical tiles, circa 1777-80
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
Fifteen Liverpool delftware theatrical tiles, circa 1777-80
Finely printed in black by Guy Green with various actors, ribbon cartouches titled with the names of each thespian and their particular role, the diaper borders hung with theatre masks, trophies and musical instruments, mounted in a wooden frame, each tile approx 12.5cm x 12.5cm, the frame 69.5cm x 43cm
Footnotes
Provenance
Norman Stretton Collection
Christie's, 2 December 2009, lot 83
Literature
Sharp, Rosalie Wise, Ceramics: Ethics & Scandal, 2002, pp.130-136
White, Mary, People at the Whites' House, Vol.5, 2024, p.60-61
See Anthony Ray, 'Liverpool Printed Tiles', ECC Trans, Vol.9, Pt.1, 1973, pp.64-66 where thirty-six theatrical tiles are listed together with source prints. Most are taken from illustrations in Bell's Shakespeare and British Theatre and Lowndes' New English Theatre. A group of tiles from the same series was sold by Bonhams as part of the Graham Slater Collection on 15 April 2025, lot 154
The inscriptions are as follows:
Mr Bensley in the Character of Mahomet
Mr Foote in the Character of Fondlewife
Mr Shuter in the Character of Lovegold
Mr Moody in the Character of Teague
Mr King in the Character of Lissardo
Mr Wroughton in the Character of Barnwell
Mrs Wrighton in the Character of Peggy
Mr Lewis in the Character of Hippolitus
Miss Younge in the Character of Zara
Mr Woodward in the Character of Petruchio
Mr Garrick as Don John in the Chances
Mr Woodward in the Character of Razor
Mrs Bulkley in the Character of Angelina
Mrs Mattocks as Prins Catherine
Mr Lee Lewis in the Character of Harlequin