Description:

Tin-glazed earthenware (so-called delftware) tile printed in black in Liverpool by Sadler with the "Sportsman's Arms", a piece of joke heraldry. The print is also known on a tin-glazed earthenware dinner-plate. The design is no. B1-1a in Anthony Ray's Liverpool Printed Tiles (1994) and is probably one of the earliest line-engraved prints on a tile: a version was done with a border (no. B1-1), but this has no border and is not part of any series. Designs were apparently not yet standardised. The style of engraving suggests this is the work of Jeremiah Evans.