A Large Late 18thC Earthenware Plaque of The Fall of Adam and Eve & The Tree of Knowledge c.1780

Object Description

A large and evocative late eighteenth century earthenware plaque of arched form depicting Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of Knowledge, shown at the moment of temptation, with Eve holding the apple and Adam reaching toward the trunk, the serpent emerging from within the split tree, the scene rendered in a restrained palette of manganese brown, copper green and soft ochre to a pale ground, the figures outlined with a confident but naïve hand and surviving from Georgian period England.

Object History

Unknown.

Object Literature

Stylistically and technically the plaque aligns closely with late 18th-century Northern European vernacular wares, most plausibly English or Low Countries in origin. The modelling of the figures, the naïve but assured draughtsmanship, the stylised landscape and foliage, and the symbolic handling of the serpent all point away from Victorian revival work and toward an earlier tradition rooted in provincial tin- or lead-glazed earthenware. The composition itself draws on earlier biblical engravings, filtered through a local workshop hand rather than an academic or factory tradition. Large-scale figural plaques of this subject and period are increasingly scarce, particularly those surviving intact and without later over-painting or restoration. Adam and Eve scenes were favoured for their moral symbolism and domestic resonance, often intended for hanging in private interiors rather than ecclesiastical settings. The arched form, generous scale, and quietly theatrical composition give the plaque a strong pictorial presence, somewhere between devotional object and domestic moralising image.

With its strong folk-art sensibility, narrative power, and unmistakable sense of age, this is a compelling and atmospheric object of human salvation, firmly within the late eighteenth century vernacular tradition and highly suited to a country house or collection focused on early religious or symbolic imagery.

Object Condition

The plaque is of substantial thickness and weight, with hand-finished with slightly irregular edges and a fully glazed reverse. The reverse surface shows characteristic firing imperfections, kiln spur marks, glaze pooling and minor pin-holing consistent with 18th-century production, together with scattered old edge losses and abrasions commensurate with age. There are no later mounts or interventions evident other than two holes drilled for wall mounting, and the overall condition is honest and unforced, with wear that reinforces rather than detracts from its age and character. There are small factory cracks to the rim and a small factory hole to the tree trunk.

Object Details