Thomas Toft
Display dish with Charles II (1630–1685) in a tree
ca. 1680
A slip-decorated earthenware dish made around 1670–1680 by the English potter Thomas Toft of Staffordshire, depicting the popular Restoration legend of Charles II hiding inside the Boscobel Oak after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Toft's bold white slip drawing under a brown lead glaze is the classic Staffordshire slipware style, and the dish is one of the best examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's English folk-pottery collection.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art