English Delftware Blue and White Plate, dated 1738

Wendy A. Cooper and Lisa Minardi, Paint, Pattern & Quilt, Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), p. 15.

For a further example see Louis L. Lipski and Michael Archer, Dated English Delftware: Tin-glazed Earthenware 1600-1800, London, 1984, p. 102. The authors note that the W. G plate was probably made for William Gregg (1695-1747), the son of John Gregg who was born in Ireland and who came to Delaware in 1682. They also comment that both plates are from a small group of plates, all dated 1738, and decorated with either a Chinese figure or variations of formal floral designs, which have been found in Chester County, Pennsylvania, some remaining with descendants of the original families. 

Plates from this group have recently been discussed and illustrated in Cooper and Minardi, op. cit., 2011, pp. 14-15, where the authors note that William Gregg, a Quaker and wealthy miller, occupied a large brick house built in 1737 just south of the current border of Pennsylvania in New Castle County, Delaware, and illustrate a book stand which probably belonged to him. 

A further plate from the same set as the present was sold at Pook & Pook Inc., Downingtown, September 30, 2021, lot 497.

Sotheby's is grateful to Lisa Minardi for her assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.