An important and documentary Lowestoft blue and...

An important and documentary Lowestoft blue and white punchbowl, c.1760-62, the interior painted with a sailing vessel above the inscription 'Success to the Cruizer Cutter' above 'Henry Major - Master', the exterior with low huts in a continuous Chinese island landscape, cracked and previously riveted, 27.7cm dia.

This bowl was the subject of an article in Volume 15, Part 2 of the Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle in 1994; 'The Henry Major Bowl' by Christopher Spencer, in which he identifies it as the earliest piece of documentary Lowestoft. The Major family were based in Folkestone and were granted letters of marque in 1778 for a one-masted vessel named 'Cruizer' as well as others. A vessel called 'Cruizer' is mentioned in Customs records of October 1761, three miles off the coast of Dover, operating as a privateer. Although John Major is listed on most of the official documents, Henry was in fact the eldest brother and turned 18 in 1760. If the vessel listed on the 1761 Customs records was in the Major family at that time it is likely that Henry was the Master rather than the younger John.