The tin-glazed earthenware mug which sold for £12,000 at Claydon Auctioneers.
Decorated with a bust length portrait of Charles II wearing a crown and suit of armour and the inscription CDR2 1660, the mug went well above its estimate of £1000-2000 at the December 30 auction in Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire.
A total of 16 similar documentary English (mainly London) delft caudle cups and mugs with portraits of Charles II are recorded by Louis Lipski and Michael Archer in Dated English Delftware (1984). Of various shapes and designs, they range in date from the Restoration year of 1660 to the onset of the Exclusion Crisis in 1679. A handful have appeared for sale since the turn of the 21st century, bringing very substantial five-figure sums.
Most portraits of Charles II on delftware show him in coronation robes, holding an orb and sceptre.
The depiction of the Stuart king in armour, a symbol of military power, is one also known from prints and a handful of surviving pots (including a Southwark delft caudle cup from the Simon Sainsbury collection sold by Christie’s in 2008 for £60,000).
A detail of the tin-glazed earthenware mug which sold for £12,000 at Claydon Auctioneers.
The Claydon mug, around 3¼in (10cm) high, was in relatively good condition with only some typical losses to the glaze. However, it was carefully catalogued without reference to its period.
As indicated by two small bore holes to the base, the vendor, who had purchased it at the flea market, subjected it to thermoluminescence testing by Oxford Authentication in the hope of dating it.
Another view of the tin-glazed earthenware mug which sold for £12,000 at Claydon Auctioneers.
The report, completed in November 2022, and included alongside the lot in the online catalogue, concluded that ‘the clay appeared to contain a spurious component which gave rise to the background signal making any dating unreliable’.
The buyer wishes to remain anonymous.
