Casgliadau Arlein

Plate, buff earthenware, covered with a pale-blue-tinged tin-glaze, standing on a recessed base, spreading, cushion-moulded sides, forming a large central well and sloping wide rim; decorated in underglaze blue, in the centre, with a shoulder-length portrait of John Wilkes, in conventional 18th century dress, wearing a wig, his eyes of two differing sizes, his mouth thin and upturned at the corners, the portrait within two concentric bands, one thick, one thin, 'No. 45' on the cavetto above the portrait, 'Wilkes and Liberty', below; thin lattice-work border to outer rim, the rim heavily chipped.