The Vicar and Moses: C.21-1929

Titles

The Vicar and Moses

Maker(s)

Potter: Wood, Ralph, II (Probably)

Entities

• Figure group
• Staffordshire figure group (early)
• Flat-backed figure group

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware
• Pearlware

Description

Earthenware figure group, moulded and modelled in several parts, decorated with brown, blue and clear lead glazes.

Cream earthenware, press-moulded and modelled, and decorated with brown, blue, and clear lead-glazes. Figure group comprising a square double tier pulpit; at the top, an elderly sleeping vicar with his head resting on his left hand; at the bottom, a younger speaking clerk with his left hand raised in benediction. Each figure has his right hand draped over the lectern on the front of his pulpit, on which rests an open bible. The pulpit is slab-built as an open vessel, into which the moulded figures have been put. On each of the four front corners below the lecterns, it has a winged cherub's head in relief. The modelling of the figures is very fine, showing the folds of the clothing, the finger nails, the ringlets of the vicar’s wig and the clerk’s buttons. The vicar wears a wig and clerical dress. The clerk has a blue jacket and the pulpit is mid brown, hands and faces are pale pinkish brown, other parts are white. ‘THE VICAR / AND MOSES’ is impressed on the front of the lower pulpit. The underside is flat and unglazed.

Notes

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

Legal notes

Given by Mrs W.D. Dickson

Place(s) associated

• Burslem ⪼ Staffordshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1929-05-21) by Dickson, W. D. (Frances Louisa), Mrs

Dating

18th Century, Late
George III
Circa 1783 CE - Circa 1795 CE

Note

Figures showing scenes from everyday life and topical events became popular from the late 18th Century. Early examples like this are often complex, with modelled and moulded parts and applied decoration. However, by c.1835 these methods had largely given way to three-part press-moulding which enabled faster and cheaper production for a growing market.

Ralph Wood of Burslem made the earliest Staffordshire figure groups of The Vicar and Moses, decorated with coloured glazes, c. 1783-1795. An example in the City Museum and art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, has the impressed mark, 'Ra. Wood/Burslem'. Similar groups decorated in enamel colours appeared from the early 1800s and versions were made throughout the century. These all feature the double pulpit and sleeping vicar, but variations in quality and modelling show they were produced by different potters - the Fitzwilliam holds two such different versions – and there are also later copies in circulation. A different group with the same title was made by Enoch Wood, c.1790-1810, and shows the clerk leading the drunken vicar home. A satirical ballad, ‘The Vicar and Moses’, by George Alexander Stevens, published c. 1772, which tells of a drunken vicar assisted in his duties by his clerk, Moses, almost certainly influenced the production of both these groups. The double pulpit format here seems to be inspired by William Hogarth's engraving, ‘The Sleeping Congregation’, which shows the vicar preaching while his Clerk and the congregation sleep, first published in 1736.