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Britannia: EC.18-1938

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Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Britannia

Maker(s)

Factory: Derby Porcelain Factory
Proprietor: William Duesbury & Co.

Entities

Categories

Description

Soft-paste porcelain figure of Britannia, painted in polychrome enamels and gilt.

Soft-paste porcelain figure of Britannia, slip-cast, and painted overglaze in pale blue, turquoise, green, flesh pink, pink, puce, red, pale brown, and black enamels, and gilt. The unglazed underside has been ground flat, and has three patch marks, and a large circular central ventilation hole. The base is approximately circular with a rococo scrolled and pierced front edge, and rises up at the back into a broad tree trunk with two branches bearing flowers and foliage on the figure’s left. Britannia stands with her left foot slightly advanced, her head turned a little to her right as she looks towards her raised right hand. Her left arm is a little behind her, the hand supporting an oval shield charged with red crosses of St George and St Andrew, which rests on the head of a lion. She has long, pale brown hair, tied back, and a cap with three white feathers at the front and a red underside to the peak. She wears a white dress with a puce floral pattern, pink cuffs, and pink drape round the neckline, a gilt scale cuirass, a white and turquoise shawl draped over her right shoulder and arm, and black sandals with a gold button on top. On the figure’s right a pink flag with a Union Jack in the top corner projects from the tree trunk. On the base there is a pale blue canon mouth, two pale blue canon balls of different sizes, a sword with a black scabbard with green wreath resting on it, and a white trumpet. The edge is picked out in turquoise and gold.

Notes

History note: Unknown before testator

Legal notes

Cecil E. Byas Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 26 cm
Width: 12.8 cm

Relative size of this object

12.8 cm26 cm What does this represent?

Relative size of this object is displayed using code inspired by Good Form and Spectacle's work on the British Museum's Waddeson Bequest website and their dimension drawer. They chose a tennis ball to represent a universally sized object, from which you could envisage the size of an object.

Place(s) associated

  • Derby ⪼ Derbyshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1937) by Byas, Cecil E.

Dating

Third quarter of 18th century
George III
Production date: circa AD 1765

School or Style

Rococo

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamels ( pale blue, turquoise, green, flesh pink, pink, puce, red, pale brown, and black) gold

Materials used in production

presumed lead-glaze Lead-glaze
Soft-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Slip-casting : Soft-paste porcelain, slip-cast, and painted overglaze in pale blue, turquoise, green, flesh pink, pink, puce, red, pale brown, and black enamels, and gilt. The unglazed underside has been ground flat, and has three patch marks, and a large circular central ventilation hole
Glazing (coating)

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: EC.18-1938
Primary reference Number: 131415

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 25 February 2020

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2022) "Britannia" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/131415 Accessed: 2022-12-09 19:51:30

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/131415 |title=Britannia |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2022-12-09 19:51:30|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-131415

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa40/EC_18_1938_1_201011_amt49_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Britannia"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Britannia</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>

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