Skip to main content

Tawny Owl: C.59-1932

An image of Animal figure
View image details Mirador icon - view image Mirador deep zoom IIIF Manifest IIIF Manifest Slow looking

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Alternative views

An image of Animal figure
An image of Animal figure
An image of Animal figure
Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Tawny Owl

Maker(s)

Factory: Bow Porcelain Manufactory

Entities

Categories

Description

Soft-paste porcelain Tawny Owl, press-moulded, with visible mould mark running down the sides and over the head, and with hand-modelled details, painted overglaze in polychrome enamels.

Soft-paste porcelain Tawny Owl, press-moulded, with visible mould mark running down the sides and over the head, and with hand-modelled details, painted over lead-glaze in blue, yellowish-green, yellow, dark pink, brown and black enamels. The deep convex underside is glazed and does not have a ventilation hole. The roughly circular, rounded conical base has vertical ridges to resemble the bark on a tree stump, and has three applied flowers and leaves at the front. On the viewer's right it has a projecting broken off branch. The owl perches on the stump with his left foot on the branch, looking straight ahead. There is a large circu-lar ventilation hole in the back of the top of its head. The plumage is mainly white with brown and very pale yellow feathers here and there, and circles of brown feathers round both eyes, which are brown with black pupils. Its beak is yellow, and its feet are yellow with brown short lines overall, and black claws. One flower is dark pink with a yellow centre, and the other two are blue. The leaves are green and there are spaced green splodges on the base.

Notes

History note: Unknown before donor, Mrs W.D. (Frances Louisa) Dickson, Bournemouth

Legal notes

Given by Mrs W.D. Dickson

Measurements and weight

Depth: 13.6 cm
Height: 20 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1932) by Dickson, W. D. (Frances Louisa), Mrs

Dating

18th Century, Mid
George II
Circa 1755 - 1760

School or Style

Rococo

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamels ( blue, yellowish-green, yellow, dark pink, brown and black)
Details

Materials used in production

presumed lead Lead-glaze
presumed phosphatic Soft-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Press-moulding : Soft-paste porcelain, press-moulded, with visible mould mark running down the sides and over the head, and with hand-modelled details, painted overglaze in polychrome enamels
Glazing (coating)

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.59-1932
Primary reference Number: 41909

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 30 April 2024

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 (2025) "Tawny Owl" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/41909 Accessed: 2025-12-05 10:36:17

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/41909 |title=Tawny Owl |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 10:36:17|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-41909

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/C_59_1932_1_201011_amt49_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Tawny Owl"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Tawny Owl</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...

University of Cambridge Museums logo
Cambridge City Council logo
Arts Council England Logo
Research England logo