Bust of George II (ruled 1727-60): C.7-1951

Titles

Bust of George II (ruled 1727-60)

Maker(s)

Factory: Bow Porcelain Manufactory (Probably)
Factory: Vauxhall Porcelain Factory (Perhaps)
Factory: Richard Chaffers & Co. (Perhaps)

Entities

• Bust

Categories

• Porcelain
• Soft-paste porcelain

Description

Soft-paste porcelain bust of George II, bewigged, and wearing armour, the Garter Star, and a cloak draped about his shoulders and fastened with an oval cabochon brooch, supported on an associated black marble socle

Soft-paste porcelain bust of George II, press-moulded, and coated inside and outside with very pale greyish-blue lead-glaze. The glaze has many brown speckles. The back of the bust below the shoulders is open, and the marks of paring away of the clay to make the wall thinner are visible. The narrow base has a large circular hole to facilitate its attachment to a socle. A small shallow fragment from another object has adhered to the underside of the right shoulder. The King faces front with his head turned three-quarters to his left. He has a long curling wig, and wears a shirt and neckcloth under armour, the breastplate of which is ornamented with scrolls and foliage. Over his left shoulder plate is the Star of the Order of the Garter, partly concealed by a cloak which is drawn in folds around his shoulders, and is held together above the Order by an oval cabochon brooch. The circular black marble socle is associated.

Notes

History note: Uncertain before Roger Francis Lambe (1872-1951), London

Legal notes

Bequeathed by R.F. Lambe

Place(s) associated

• Vauxhall ⪼ Middlesex ⪼ England
• Liverpool ⪼ Surrey ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1951) by Lambe, Roger Francis

Dating

18th Century, Mid
George II
Circa 1745 CE - 1760 CE

Note

Nineteen examples of this bust of George II (1683-1760) have been recorded. The Fitzwilliam's bust lacks both the socle found with some examples, and the rococo style wall bracket to support it, which is more rare. Their attribution is contentious. Since the 19th century they been variously attributed to Chelsea, Plymouth. Bow, Worcester, Chaffers Liverpool, and most recently Vauxhall. On accession this bust was attributed to Chelsea, although its glaze is unlike Chelsea porcelain. It was reattributed to Richard Chaffers' Factory, Liverpool, by Dr Bernard Watney in 1968. This reattribution rested on spectrographic analysis of two examples respectively in the British Museum and in Dr Watney's collection. These showed that the body contained soapstone (steatite), which suggested Liverpool as a possible place of manufacture. Worcester porcelain is also steatitic, but as that factory made very few figures the bust is unlikely to have been made there. More recently the Vauxhall factory which also made steatitic soft-paste, has been adopted as an alternative. Accepting any of these three attributions would place the busts' date of manufacture in the late 1740s or 1750s, as it seems unlikely that they were made after the King's death. Analysis of early products of the Bow factory have indicated that some of them contained steatite, and that therefore this bust might equally have been made by the Bow factory before its establishment in the New Canton factory in Essex. This would place its date in the mid 1740s when the King was popular after his participation in the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 and the defeat of the Stuart Rebellion of 1745-6. The two most recent publications on the busts, Bimson, 2011, and Daniels and Ramsay, 2013 weigh these possibilities, and give the current locations of the recorded examples.

School or Style

Rococo