OLD STAFFORDSHIRE GROUP, BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.
By Enoch Wood. Enamelled in colours. (Height 24 inches.)
(In the collection of Col. and Mrs. Dickson.)
Old Staffordshire Earthenware Figures.
ADONIS (after the antique).
(Height 23 inches.)
VENUS.
(Height 24 inches.)
(In the possession of Mr. S. G. Fenton.)
There was a strong Quaker element in Staffordshire, and the Established Church was the subject of a good deal of satire by the potter. The Parson and Clerk returning home after a carousal, The Tithe Pig and other subjects exemplify this. Fielding published "Joseph Andrews" in 1742, and it appears that parson-baiting was a familiar form of amusement. Probably there were a good many abuses in the Church that were evident. The hunting parson was often the boon companion of the drinking squire. At any rate the Ralph Wood group, entitled The Vicar and Moses,[6] showing the sleeping vicar, with full-bottomed wig, and Moses, the clerk, seated underneath the pulpit exhorting the congregation with uplifted hand, is a masterly piece of modelling. In colour the original Ralph Wood examples are light purplish throbbing brown in the pulpit and desk, and carved cherubs, green in the canopy behind the vicar, and who has a white cassock, and the coat of Moses is a slatey blue. The flesh tints are low in tone.
To return to Aaron Wood, the brother of Ralph Wood, he was the father of William Wood, who became one of Wedgwood's modellers, and of Enoch Wood, who went to Palmer as modeller for some years. In 1784 Enoch Wood commenced business for himself. He produced cream ware and black basalt and, what most interests us here, he made some excellent figures, including a bust of John Wesley. In 1790 he entered into partnership with James Caldwell. The ware is marked "Wood and Caldwell" till 1818, when the firm became "Enoch Wood and Sons," till 1866.
In regard to Ralph Wood, the elder, he appears to have engaged his son in his pottery, so that prior to his death, in 1772, we do not know which Ralph Wood modelled some of the figures; but from 1772 to 1797 Ralph Wood, junior, was responsible for the factory, and there seems to have been business connection, about 1786, between him and his cousin Enoch Wood.
Concerning the figures of Ralph Wood, father and son, it may be said that they were the first to impress their names upon Staffordshire figures. Some of the pieces are marked with impressed mark R. Wood, Ra Wood, Burslem (impressed on Vicar and Moses). This mark is found on some of the finest and earliest Toby jugs. It is believed, though not proved, that "Ra Wood" is the mark adopted by Ralph Wood, junior.
That the Woods reflected English feeling and sentiment and did not go to the classics for their inspiration is shown by their fine model of Hudibras upon his horse, in the act of drawing his sword.