Shepherdess: C.858-1928

Titles

Shepherdess

Maker(s)

Production: Unidentified Staffordshire factory

Entities

• Figure

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware
• Coloured glazed figures
• Pearlware

Description

Earthenware figure of a shepherdess accompanied by a lamb decorated with coloured lead-glazes

Cream earthenware, press-moulded, and painted with translucent blue-tinted, blue, pale green, and brown lead-glazes. The underside of the glazed base is closed and concave with a central ventilation hole. The shepherdess stands on a roughly circular mound with a rococo style scrolled and frilled edge, and a grassy top. She faces to the front, holding her left hand up to her breast. Her right arm is missing. She has brown hair, and wears a shallow-brimmed round hat with a blue edging. Her white jacket has a basque and is edged with blue, and there is blue lacing across the stomacher. Her skirt has a green looped up layer at the top, and is long and brown at the back. Her petticoat is bluish white. The lamb lies on her right looking upwards. Its eyes are outlined in blue.

Notes

History note: Unknown before Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

1780s
1790s
Circa 1785 - 1800

Note

Although this figure is the same model as the Shepherdess attributed to Ralph Wood II (C.44-1930), it is different in several ways which suggest that it was made by a different potter. The whole is a little larger and much heavier in the hand, the base is enclosed, the details are less sharp, and the outlining of the eyes in blue is unattractive, in comparison with the brown irises on the typical Ralph Wood figures.