The posset-pot and cover, with the London date mark for 1683, exhibits another form; its body has straighter sides. The scroll handles are similar to some of the older forms, and the woman’s head is retained. The acanthus-leaf decoration occurs on the lower part of the body, the rest being plain. Here the proportion of decorated and undecorated surface introduces another factor. It is seen on the lower portion of the Charles II porringer of the date of 1666, and it lingers in the Exeter piece of the Queen Anne period, 1707, with the addition of a decorative band three-quarters of the way up the bowl (illustrated p. 209).
In the Tudor period we have seen, in regard to the mottled stoneware tankards, that the potter and the silversmith worked in sympathy with each other. In late Stuart days it cannot be said that the silversmith and the potter had very much in common. We illustrate two specimens of the days of James II of the same date, 1685. The first is a posset-pot and cover of unusual form, with steeple-like cover and baluster terminal. This is on a high foot, and the handles have a massiveness about them not usually associated with posset-cups. The year 1685 is an important date in the art of the silversmith. The Edict of Nantes was revoked, and in consequence many hundreds of Huguenot refugees, silk-weavers and metal-workers, came to this country. The Spitalfield looms and the names of French makers on the silver plate date from this influx of foreign craftsmen.
Below this is a posset-cup made by the Staffordshire potter, racy of the soil, and far removed from the subtleties of the worker in silver. This is dated 1685, and inscribed “William Simpson His cup.” The handles, six in number, are eminently suited to the plastic clay. The convolutions of the smaller handle are suggestive of the glass-worker. Here the potter and the silversmith join hands, for the handle of the more elaborate piece is suggestive of the glass-worker too. It must be remembered that Venetian glass-workers had settled in London under the patronage of the Duke of Buckingham in the days of Charles II. It is not unnatural to suppose, seeing that the glass-blower, the silversmith, and the potter were all working in competition, that they cast an eye on each other’s work.