My squirrel with his tail
curved up like half a silver lyre.
Winifred Welles, Silver for Midas, 1893–1939
While working at Colonial Williamsburg in the 1960s, the Noël Humes discovered
fragments of English delft dinnerware that featured a delightful squirrel
design. Originally these were used by the eighteenth-century Williamsburg,
Virginia, tavern-keeper Anthony Hay. The fragments prompted the purchase of
a matching plate (1). Believed to have been made at Lambeth in London around
1750, the plate was later joined in the Noël Hume collection by two larger
Bristol dishes (2 and 3) that date about fifteen years earlier. Colonial Williamsburg
was so taken by the squirrel design that it soon began to use the pattern
on restaurant china at Campbell’s Tavern. The ashtray (4) is one such
piece. This example was properly acquired by the Noël Humes, but many
others disappeared into the pockets and purses of over-admiring patrons.
1.
Plate, delftware. Lambeth, ca. 1750.
2.
Dish, delftware. Bristol, ca. 1735–1745.
3.
Dish, delftware. Bristol, ca. 1735–1740.
4.
Ashtray, white ware. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Williamsburg, VA, 1985.
