A creamware commemorative mug, c.1809, the cylindrical body printed in black and decorated in

A creamware commemorative mug, c.1809, the cylindrical body printed in black and decorated in colours with a satirical cartoon depicting Mary Anne Clarke and the Duke of York and Albany centred by an inverted Bishop's mitre, above the inscription 'He's wrong who Terms the Duke a lawless spark, For every Bishop is allowed his Clark', 12cm.

The Duke of York, thanks to the influence of his father George III also the Elector of Hanover, had within a year of his birth been elected to the valuable Bishopric of Osnaburg. Clarke was his mistress from 1803 but a scandal erupted in 1809 when Clarke testified under oath to having sold army commissions with the knowledge of the Duke of York. Clarke was the great-great-grandmother of the novelist, Daphne du Maurier. Cf. David Drakard, Printed English Pottery, pls. 619a, b and c.