A large faience charger in shades of green, yellow and blue with a dashed rim, the centre decorated with a large oak tree, its branches terminating in three crowns to symbolise England, Ireland and Scotland, the head of Charles II at the centre of the trunk, flanked by the date 1680 and a ribbon around the trunk inscribed 'THE:ROYALL:OAK.' [sic]. The date of 1680 places its manufacture some twenty years after Charles II's restoration to the throne, but the story of the royal oak had become part of Charles's personal mythology and was recounted throughout his reign as a testimony to his bravery, ingenuity and divine protection. Commemorative wares such as this charger - the royal souvenirs of their day - were displayed on a wall or dresser as a patriotic symbol of loyalty to the king.

Following the royalist defeat at the battle of Worcester on the 3 September 1651, Charles II fled to Boscobel House in Shropshire, the home of the Pendrell family. His concealment at Boscobel and his daring flight across England was later recorded by the king himself in An Account of the Preservation of King Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. Upon arriving at Boscobel, Charles recalled that Colonel William Careless, an attending royalist officer, 'told me, that it would be very dangerous for me either to stay in [the] house, or to go into the wood' and 'that he knew but one way how to pass the next day, and that was, to get up into a great oak'. He continued, noting how 'we (that is to say, Careless and I) went, and carried up with us some victuals for the whole day, viz. bread, cheese, small beer, and nothing else, and got up into a great oak, that had been lopt some three or four years before, and being grown out again, very bushy and thick, could not be seen through, and here we staid all the day'. Having successfully concealed himself from the Parliamentary forces, Charles began his journey to safety the following day and by the 16 October he had reached France.

Text adapted from Charles II: Art and Power (2017)