AN EARLY NOTTINGHAM OR CRICH SALTGLAZED BROWN STONEWARE LOVING CUP

AN EARLY NOTTINGHAM OR CRICH SALTGLAZED BROWN STONEWARE LOVING CUP, DATED 1713 finely potted and of compressed bulbous form with flared neck, turned detail and broad handles, inscribed Elizabeth Cockin 1713, 21.5cm h Provenance: In the present local family ownership for many generations and believed to have passed by descent from the original owner.James Morley of 'Ye Pot House in Nottingham', a highly skilled practical potter whose speciality the 'carved' (pierced) mugs feature in his well known trade card, was rivalled only by the wares of his equally significant brother Thomas of Crich, Derbyshire. In the absence of evidence in the affirmative, their wares are usually indistinguishable in form and substance, since the clay used by both was dug from the Crich Pottery field.An extraordinary feature of the present example is that it has quite possibly remained in the same family from the 18th century to the present day. A very similar example, also dated 1713, is inscribed with the name Dorothy Rogers and may relate to one or other child of that name baptised at Mansfield,Nottinghamshire or Barlow, Derbyshire in 1713. It is illustrated, Henstock, Hildyard and Wood, Nottingham Salt-glazed Stoneware 1690-1800, 2010, catalogue No 26.Of the families called Cockayne, Cockyn, Cockeyn(e) and even Coquin, the phonetically spelled Cockin is that most frequently encountered in records of the period.From a search limited to the counties of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire between 1700 and 1725 it is highly probable that the Elizabeth Cockin whose name appears on this cup may now be positively identified. It seems that it was made as a marriage gift for Elizabeth Henstock of Ashover, Derbyshire, the wife of Henry Cockin whom she married on 2 August 1713 at South Wingfield, a place only four miles from Crich. According to the parish registers of Ashover, 'Elizabeth, wife of Henry Cockeyne', was buried at Ashover in October 1722.