DERBY FIGURE GROUP.
Lady and gentleman dancing. Decorated in rich colours and gilded.
Of the introduction of the cross daggers and six spots, about the year 1782, there is the tradition that it was a defiance to all manufactories except three, viz., those of Sèvres, Dresden, and Berlin.
CROWN DERBY PASTILLE-BURNER (4 IN. HIGH).
In the Collection of the Author.
We give as a headpiece a typical example of early Crown-Derby. It represents a two-handled covered cup and saucer decorated with the well-known rich blue and gold border and festoons in pink. It is marked in puce with jewelled crown. This specimen is from the national collection now at the Bethnal Green Museum.
The vase we reproduce is 61⁄2 in. high and has the crown and crossed batons and dots, which mark has been photographed and appears in the illustration ([p. 17]). It is richly decorated and a good specimen, as is the smaller vase, or pastille-burner, with masks, and similarly marked ([p. 11]).
These two specimens, together with the Crown-Derby mug and saucer, decorated in tomato red and gold, are from the collection of Mr. W. G. Honey, which was on view at the Cork Exhibition.
The first William Duesbury died in 1785. His son, William, who had for the last few years been in partnership with him under the firm of Duesbury and Son, succeeded him. This second William Duesbury increased the fortunes of Derby china with astonishing rapidity. The King and Queen, and the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.), and the leaders of fashionable society were among his customers. There was a craze for a time, and titled ladies painted flowers and other pictures on the porcelain supplied to them by the Derby factory. It was afterwards fired and finished for their own special use.