This comparatively inexpensive tile attests to English pineapple mania: its cheap transfer- printed image (a novel technique introduced at Liverpool in 1756) shows a well-to-do courting couple strolling on an elegant parterre past a large terracotta pot containing a flourishing pineapple plant. This image is adapted from an illustration published in the popular women’s periodical, The Ladies Amusement, in 1762. For most wealthy gardeners, pineapple cultivation had become ‘the fashionable Test of good gardening’ to quote Adam Taylor in his gardening book of 1769. Liverpool, England, c.1765 –75 Tin-glazed earthenware and transfer-printed with reversed design from plate 32 of The Ladies Amusement (2nd edition, 1762; or 3rd edition, 1771)

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest (C.1731-1928)