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| Figure 55 “Merry Man” plate, 1943–1950. Whiteware. D. 9". Unmarked. The source for the inspiration for this plate is unknown, as it dates from the 1940s and Colonial Williamsburg did not acquire its set of Merry Man plates until 1962. The verse, one line of which is displayed on each of six plates, reads: “What is a Merry Man, / Let him do what he can, / To entertain his guests, / With wine and merry gests, / But if his wife do frown, / All Merryment goes down.” The rhyme is from the seventeenth century, although dated antique examples of this wreath version range from 1717 to 1745. |