When Adam delved and Eve span who was then a gentleman?
John Ball, in speech to rebels,1381

The Biblical scene of “The Fall” is often found on large English delftware dishes also known as chargers. The story of these two examples’ entry into the Noël Hume collection stretches credulity. Illustrated as the classic early and late Adam and Eve chargers in Bernard Rackham’s and Herbert Read’s English Pottery (1924), they were then part of the W. H. Beaumont Collection. In 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression, they were sent to auction but failed to find a buyer. They then vanished until 1965 when the Noël Humes found one in a provincial English antique shop. Two days later the other was discovered in a London street market and purchased by a friend of the Noël Humes. The chargers were reunited in 1998.

1. Charger, delftware. Southwark, ca. 1635–1645.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Charger, delftware. Bristol, ca. 1680–1710.