Courtship group: C.971-1928

Titles

Courtship group

Maker(s)

Production: Unidentified factory

Entities

• Figure group
• Staffordshire figure group (early)

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware

Description

Earthenware figure group, moulded and modelled, lead-glazed and painted with polychrome enamels.

Earthenware group of a dandy and his lady walking arm in arm. The lady carries a bag in her left hand. She wears a yellow poke bonnet, a yellow blouse over a white puffed-sleeve blouse and a pink skirt. Her bonnet is very large and has a pink band with three blue feathers at the front. The gentleman wears a top hat and a frilled shirt with stock and high collar. He has a blue coat, over yellow trousers. His coat and her skirt are finely painted with a feathery effect. The rectangular base, which has stylised marble to the sides and a pale green top. At the back is a flattened tree stump. The underside is recessed and glazed.

Notes

History note: Captain Reynolds Collection, London, sold to Messrs Gill and Reigate. Bought by Mr Stoner, London, from whom purchased in 1910 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr Glaisher paid £125 for this and fourteen other pieces, as part of a purchase of 35 figures and figure groups.

Legal notes

Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Early
Circa 1825 - 1830

Note

Earthenware figure groups were popular from around 1810, although the earliest examples date from nearly a century before. They were produced by many small potteries and very few are marked. Classical or literary subjects might be copied from more expensive porcelain examples, but scenes from everyday life and topical events were also increasingly popular. Early figure groups are often complex, with modelled and moulded parts and applied decoration; the backs, though flat, are decorated. By c.1835, earlier methods had largely given way to three-part press-moulding which enabled faster and cheaper production for a growing market.

This fashionably dressed couple’s linked arms suggest they are courting. Such groups are particularly interesting because they show contemporary costume; they are sometimes listed as ‘Dandies’.