Pictured here are two pieces from sales on either side of the Atlantic that have that special feature.
One was a plate which was one of four English delft electioneering plates that came from the Birkin collection. They were part of a selection of English delftware included in Sotheby’s Earth to Fire auction on May 4.
This particular plate, measuring 5in (23cm) in diameter, was formerly part of Levethan’s celebrated Longridge collection and was acquired in one of Christie’s auctions of that marathon assemblage in November 2011.
The inscription Fortescue.& Harris./ For Ever./ 1754 refers to the candidates John Fortescue and John Harris who contested the Barnstaple consitituency in Devon in the May 31 election won by Harris. It sold for a within-estimate £2800.
The most expensive of the quartet at £4000 was inscribed Cleveland for Ever, a reference to John Cleveland of Tapley in Devon. He was a politician and important figure in the governance of the Admiralty who stood and was awarded the seat for Saltash (1741-47 and 1761-63) and Sandwich (1747-61).
Meanwhile, an 8¾in (23cm) Liverpool delftware charger inscribed and dated LMM 1738 which featured in Pook & Pook’s auction on April 29 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.
The plate is one of a group made for Quaker families of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and is initialled for Michael and Mary Lightfoot. It sold for $24,000 (£18,460), comfortably over a guide of $15,000-20,000.
