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MY PONY, MY DOG AND MY SISTER
from a Correspondent
These four toy plates are each 110mm in diameter and, despite the feathered
edges, they are not moulded. I think it likely that there are others in
the series. None is marked. The legends are as follows:
As Morning breaks I rise from bed
And by strong inclination led
Hasten to see well clean'd and fed
MY PRETTY PONY
Then as he grew in strength and size
Who watched with eager whine my eyes
And seem'd my every thought to prize
MY TIPPOO
How often on his back I'd ride
And let him range the Garden wide
Just as he pleas'd for who cou'd chide
POOR TIPPOO
When up the Ladder I would go
How wrong it was I now well know
Who cri'd but held it fast below
MY SISTER
Editor's Note: Plate 131 of The Don Pottery 1801-1893
by John D Griffin shows a black-printed moulded plate (178mm diameter) with
a pattern of a boy and his horse and a verse:
The limbs are form'd in beauty's mould,
To me thou'rt worth thy weight in gold,
Thy skin is white as driven snow,
Thy pace is not too quick or slow:
MY NOBLE PONY.
Reference is also made to Noel Riley's Gifts for Good Children, The History
of Children's China, part I 1790-1890, pp. 192/3, (which I don't have to
hand), where other versions by other potters are illustrated, and the source
of the print and the verse is given as 'My Pony' by J Baker (William Darton
1812). John Griffin also quotes from Edward A Dowman: English Pottery and
Porcelain, 4th Edition, Upcott Gill, London, 1904, page 41: "DON…
Occasionally pieces of Don Pottery are sold by auction, and a recent price
for a child's small plate, decorated with a print of a boy and a dog, and
having three lines of verse entitled "My Tippoo", and marked underneath
"Don Pottery", was £2.6s." (John Griffin puts that
at approximately £130.00 in 1999 values.)
Whether this means that the plates shown above are from Don Pottery depends
very much on what other information is in Noel Riley's book, and I should
be pleased to hear from any Member who can help with this. However, John
Griffin shows wavy edge plates and one with an under glaze blue painted
'grass' edge (plate 142) although this plate is indented and moulded. |
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