An Extremely Rare Pair Hand Decorated Irish Delft ware wall hanging Chargers or Cabinet Dublin Deep Dish Plates by Henry Delamain of circular form, each similarly decorated with central reserves depicting Chinese Scenes, outer rim areas with scrolling leaves and flower heads. Third quarter of the Eighteenth Century.
Condition: Good “Country House” condition for such early pieces, some edge losses to porcelain glaze and other restores areas, see images.
Blue painted “9” and “2” on each at back which confirms their Irish origin.
Wonderful piece of Eighteenth-Century Irish History in our opinion belongs in a museum.
Price is reflected in their condition.
Width: (an impressive) 9.25" (23.25cm). Height: 9.25” (23.25cm). Depth: 1.5” (3.5cm).
Location: Dublin City, Ireland.
Affordable fixed charge Worldwide Store to door shipping offered by Seller.
Provenance: From the Collection of an Irish Gentleman in Northern Ireland.
A similar single example is on display at The Hunt Museum in Limerick City Ireland. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London currently has up to five pieces of Delftware on show by Henry Delamain.
Captain Henry II Delamain (1687 Kilkenny -1789, Kildare)
During the 1730's a Belfast merchant, John Chambers moved south to establish the renowned World’s End pottery in Dublin. In the 1750's Captain Henry Delamain took over these works and with an enormous financial investment transformed the pottery's fortunes. The most famous of all their products was the superbly painted romantic landscapes, which were unlike anything produced in Britain at that time. More recent research has produced a range of polychrome wares, and a further group painted more crudely in blue and white has been discovered through archaeological investigations in Virginia
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Captain Henry III DELAMAIN (1713-1757) son of Henry II DELAMAIN, started his career as a soldier as he served for 20 in the army of the Prince of Saxe Coburg Gotha (in the Austrian War of Succession) in Flanders where he learned the art of Delftware before returning to Dublin to his father's business.
However, prior to being established in Dublin he seems to have spent some time in Battersea Enamels (1750-1754) being a partner in the enamel factory of expensive objets de vertu; Janssen's partner Henry Delamain (1713-1757) was a trained potter who worked at the firm until 1754, presumably advising on furnaces and the management of the batch firing techniques that helped reduce production costs.
Examples of this rare pottery can be seen in museums in Ireland to-day. His Battersea enamels are museum pieces which could be seen in the V & A Museum in London, together with his Irish delftware.
Further reading and more similar examples see "Irish Delftware" a book all about the exhibition of Delftware at Castletown House Celbridge Co. Kildare.
Also, "Irish Delftware" by Peter Francis