{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O77538"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77538/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AU3430/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AU3430/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AU3430","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BB1759","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX4439","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O77538/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O77538","accessionNumber":"299-1869","objectType":"Dish","titles":[{"title":"The Mermaid dish","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>Great dishes such as this were probably used in the 17th century as display objects. They perhaps copied more refined dishes of painted delftware (tin-glazed earthenware). After the publication of the Reverend A.E. Downman's <i>Blue Dash Chargers</i> in 1619, the quaint biblical name 'charger' became attached to these objects, whether delftware or slipware (wares of coarse red clay decorated with a white liquid clay known as slip). The striking image of the mythical Mermaid was popular and well known in the 17th century from inn signs. As well as having a strong visual and mystical appeal, it was easily adapted to the shape of the dish.<br><br><b>Social Class</b><br>Staffordshire slipwares must always have been relatively cheap. But whereas functional cups and posset pots were probably sold at fairs and taken in wicker panniers on horseback to distant parts of the country, these huge dishes emblasoned with the name of their maker seem to have been made as local advertisements for the (widely varying) skills of their creators. Despite the many surviving examples, they were apparently completely ignored in Staffordshire  until Enoch Wood acquired two specimens for his factory museum, which opened about 1816.<br><br><b>Influence</b><br>Although such wares were recognised as interesting examples of folk pottery by the time that the South Kensington Museum acquired this piece in 1869, it was only in the 1920s that the writings of the art critic Herbert Read helped to raise them to the level of English Primitive Art. The striking simple image perfectly adapted to its 'frame' on the dish was much admired by early studio potters such as Bernard Leach (1887-1979).","physicalDescription":"Shallow dish, slip-trailed earthenware, 44 cm x 7 cm, decorated with the image of a mermaid.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Toft, Thomas","id":"A8921"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Lead-glazed earthenware, with trailed slip decoration","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Earthenware","id":"THES48964"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2006AU3430","2006BB1759","2017JX4439"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"56D","id":"THES49242"},"free":"","case":"CA13","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Dish","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Staffordshire","id":"x29181"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1670-1689","earliest":"1670-01-01","latest":"1689-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Depth","value":"7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"44","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions checked: Measured; 05/09/2000 by KB","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Thomas Toft'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"painted","position":"on lower section of rim of the dish.","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Decoration","note":"Decoration; on lower section of rim of the dish.; painted"}],"objectHistory":"Made in Staffordshire and signed by Thomas Toft (died in 1689)","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Dish, decorated with the image of a mermaid, slip-trailed earthenware, Thomas Toft, England (Staffordshire), ca.1670-80.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Richardson (eds.), <i>A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>, London: V&A Publications, 1999.","id":"AUTH348910"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"mermaids","id":"x30066"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"British Galleries:\nThis famous 'Mermaid' dish by Thomas Toft shows his masterly control of the slip-trailing technique and a natural sense of design. Little is known of Toft and his contemporary Staffordshire slipware makers, whose main production must have been useful household wares. Large dishes like this may have served as advertisements for such goods.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["299-1869"],"accessionNumberNum":"299","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1869,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LP8919","2019LP5124","2019LV1622"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-02","recordCreationDate":"2003-03-27","availableToBook":false}}