An English delftware 'Success to British Arms in America' blue and white large punch bowl, circa 1760, probably London

Margaret Goodwin Clement (1880-1975), Woodstock, Vermont;

By descent to her son, Captain Johnnie Rhodes MC (1919-1998);

By descent to his son, the present owner, and displayed at Knockespoch House, Aberdeenshire.

Only five other bowls with this inscription appear to be recorded, among them three are listed in John C. Austin’s catalogue of delftware at Colonial Williamsburg and one was exhibited in London by Johnathan Horne.¹ This rare inscription is part of a group of surviving examples with legends relating to the Seven Years War (1756-1763) with congratulatory phrases to the success of British forces, military heroes or British royalty and her allies.² The Seven Years war pitted Britain, Prussia and her allies against France, Austria, Spain, Saxony, Sweden and Russia. The end of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748 did not halt tensions between Europe’s major powers and colonial disputes around the world. Rivalry between France and Britain in North America led to the French and Indian War in 1754. This conflict became part of a larger global escalation across Europe, North America, the West Indies and India. 

The armed forces and heroes of the War were commemorated by potters across England from simple inscribed tavern wares and transfer-printed porcelain from Worcester commemorating the King of Prussia to Bow porcelain figures of Granby and Wolfe, showing a ready market for patriotic novelties across differing walks of society.³ Their clientele was drawn from both the domestic market and abroad.⁴ Inscriptions appear on salt-glazed white stoneware and tortoiseshell-glazed Whieldonware, mostly commonly in support of the King of Prussia.

This rare English delftware punch bowl has been owned by the same family for at least three generations and, by repute, is first recorded in the drawing room of the Vermont home of Margaret Goodwin Clement (1880—1975), daughter of Percival Wood Clement (1846—1927) of Rutland, Vermont, 57th Governor of the State of Vermont (1919—21).

The history of the Clement family in the United States is well documented in 2 volumes, ‘Ancestors and Descendants of Robert Clements of Leicestershire and Warwickshire in England, First Settler of Haverhill Massachusetts’, compiled by Percival Wood Clement. The first member of the family to head across the Atlantic was Robert Clements who was baptised in Leicestershire in 1595 and died at Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1658. It is believed that the death of his wife in 1642 led to him deciding to emigrate to New England and in due course he was involved in the building of the town of Haverhill. The family history thereafter is documented through to Charles Clement (1807-93), who had various business interests in Vermont in retail, marble quarrying, banking and railroads. His son Percival Wood Clement built a similarly successful career, culminating in him serving as Governor of the State of Vermont, from 1919 to 1921. While it is impossible to establish when the Clement family might have acquired this delftware punch bowl, given their long history in America, it is possible that it may have been first acquired early in its existence, or in the 19^th century.

1. See John C. Austin, British Delft at Williamsburg, Williamsburg, 1994, p. 86, no. 52, for a bowl inscribed 'Succesfs To the Britifh Arms', where the author notes three examples with the 'Success to the British Arms in America' variant; one sold at Sotheby’s, London, 13 June 1978, lot 72 and the other at Sotheby's, New York, 24 April 1982, lot 63; another is illustrated by Maj. R.G. Mundy, English Delft Pottery, London, 1928, pl. XL (the author states 'only one or two other examples are known'); see also Jonathan Horne, 'English Pottery and related works of art', ex. cat., 2003, p. 16, no. 03/11 for a punch bowl inscribed 'Succefs to British Arms in America' within a similar petal-form cartouche, the exterior painted with figures in a European landscape. A further example from an historic family in Newport, Rhode Island was offered at Nadeau’s Auction Gallery, Windsor, CT, 17 April 2021, lot 227, apparently in the same family since 1761. 

2. See Michael Archer, Delftware: The Tin-Glazed Earthenware of the British Isles, London, 1997, pp. 301-2, no. F.32, for a bowl made for I. Clark, dated 1760 with an extensive royalist dedication to George II, the King of Prussia and other allies.

3. See Aileen Dawson, English & Irish Delftware 1570-1840, London, 2010, p. 78, no. 25.

4. See John C. Austin, op. cit., p. 86 for a fragment of a bowl with dedication to the British Navy excavated on the Timberlake and Dana site, Williamsburg.