AN ENGLISH DELFTWARE ROYAL PORTRAIT CAUDLE-CUP OF WILLIAM III

This unusual caudle-cup appears to be the only recorded example with a portrait of William III alone. Lipski and Archer record fourteen dated examples with portraits of Charles II. A cup of the same form as the present lot with the initials CR and a portrait of Charles II is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, see Michael Archer, Delftware The Tin-Glazed Earthenware of the British Isles, London, 1997, p. 246, C.9, where the author notes that 'Fragments of similar shaped mugs have been found at Mark Brown's Wharf, and even closer ones, but of a slightly later date, at Norfolk House'. See also John C. Austin, British Delft at Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1994, p. 103, no. 86 for a related cup painted with William and Mary.