A rare Lambeth Delftware charger

A rare Lambeth Delftware charger, boldly painted with a standing spotty cat playing a fiddle for a line of dancing mice, flanked by trees and with five gulls flying above. Small glaze chips and rim wear, c.1740, 36cm. The only other known Delftware dish of this design is in the Longridge Collection no.D144, but differs in having a blue-dash border. Although the well-known nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" dates back to 1756 and so postdates this dish, "The Cat and the Fiddle" has been a popular public house name since at least 1501 when there was "Le Catte cum le Fydell" in Bucklersbury in the City of London. Cf. Grigsby and Archer, The Longridge Collection, Volume II, D144.