Pheasant: C.3086-1928

Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Pheasant

Maker(s)

Factory: Longton Hall Porcelain Manufactory
Potter: Littler, William

Entities

Animal figure

Description

Glassy soft-paste porcelain pheasant of 'Snowman' type, slip-cast (?), with applied moulded details, covered with thick, bubbly, clear lead-glaze, which has black speckles here and there, and is heavily speckled and 'dry' round the edge of the base. The underside is unglazed and has a large and deep oval ventilation area near the front. The shallow base has a wavy outline with a small rock or tree stump at the back and a large rock at the front. The pheasant faces to the viewer's left. It stands on its left leg with its right on the rock, and its long tail over but not touching the small rock or tree stump. A vine bearing applied leaves and bunches of grapes climbs up the front of the rock and terminates by the pheasant's right shoulder. The top of the branch is open to take an attachment. On the base there are two applied daisies with three leaves each below the bird's tail, and one daisy with two leaves on the rock in front of its left foot.

Notes

History note: Purchased at Frome, Somerset with C.3085-1928 for £2.10s.0d. by A.G.W. Murray, Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, who sold them for the same figure to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, also of Trinity College, to which the latter added a Staffordshire figure of Cleopatra.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 16 cm
Length: 21.2 cm

Relative size of this object

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

Longton Hall ⪼ Staffordshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

Mid 18th Century
George II
Circa 1750 CE - Circa 1752 CE

Note

The pheasant belongs to the group of early Longton Hall figures described as 'snowmen' because of their thick, bubbly glaze which obscures the details of the modelling.

School or Style

Rococo

Components of the work

Details

Materials used in production

presumed lead; except for underside of base Lead-glaze
Glassy soft-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Slip-casting : Glassy soft-paste porcelain, slip-cast, with applied moulded details, covered with thick, bubbly, clear lead-glaze, which has black speckles here and there, and is heavily speckled and 'dry' round the edge of the base
Glazing (coating)