English delftware plate dated 1727 with the initails" H.L". Bristol or London delftworks

Reference: 5353

Dated: 1727 English Bristol or London

A rare and unusual English delftware dish with a well executed blue image of a forlorn shepherd bemoaning the loss of his lamb and ewe.
The poem gives a heart rending expression of the poor shepherds emotional state and reads.
" O woe is me! My only flock is gone.
Which oft I used to fold and feed alone. But yet my care for thee, poor ewe, behold! Could not preserve thy lamb from bleakest cold. Nor save thy life, which I with sorrow moan. No grief like mine,hath shepherds ever known". The reverse of the plate is unusually decorated with a single flower stem and leaves, perhaps a tribute to his Ewe?
The dish is a unique example of English delftware with such a melancholic inscription and it is likely that it was a special and personal commission perhaps from the bereft shepherd?

Diameter: 8.25inch

Medium: delft earthenware ceramic pottery

Current Condition Feint hair-line unrestored

Provenance: Longridge Collection.
Birkett Collection London

Literature: Plate ref D93 page 128 Volume 2, The Longridge Collection of English Slipware and Delftware by Leslie Grigsby (with contributions from Michael Arcer, Jonathan Horne and Margaret Macfarlane).

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