Chats on Old Earthenware

by Arthur Hayden

In the figures of children we illustrate [p. 387], the figures of Flower Boys, some 4½ inches high, are evidently inspired by some of the Chelsea-Derby figures which in their turn were under strong French influence. The middle figure of the trio is one of a pair by Wood and Caldwell. The figure of Cupid above is a fine specimen, standing 17½ inches in height. Cupid is fully armed with his deadly bow and arrow, which by the way are decorated in silver lustre, suggestive of the Falstaff shield of Wood and Caldwell, and at his feet are two lions crouching in subjugation, and he holds the torch of Hymen in his hand. This is a remarkably fine modelled figure representing this contemporary foreign influence upon Staffordshire figures at its best.

In regard to the strong classic influence the two figures (illustrated [p. 363]) are in white earthenware. That on the left, of Adonis, is obviously taken direct from the antique, while the Venus is a fine Staffordshire adaptation of a well-known classic statue in the pose and in the dolphin by her side. The only touch of colour is the darkening of the hair. It is a magnificent piece of modelling something in the nature of the classic art seen through French eyes. To find this in Staffordshire is as though one found La Source of Ingres in the Royal Academy of the year 1856. The date of this Staffordshire Venus cannot be stated. It is an important figure, being 24 inches in height and exhibits something so strikingly realistic that it must be assigned a high place among the figures.

We illustrate a Staffordshire figure belonging to this period, which is signed "Absalon, Yarmouth." Towards the end of the eighteenth century, as in the latter days of Lowestoft, a factory termed "The Ovens" at Yarmouth carried on a decorating business, receiving the ware from Leeds and from Staffordshire, and decorating and refiring it in the glost oven. The date of the figure illustrated is about 1790. On some of the pieces decorated by Absalon, the name of the Staffordshire maker, Turner, appears as an impressed mark. Turner, who carried on an extensive trade with the Baltic and Northern Europe, no doubt readily came into touch with these East Anglian decorators.

GIRL WITH TAMBOURINE.
Coloured Staffordshire figure.

Coloured Staffordshire Figures.
TAMBOURINE PLAYER (marked Salt) AND MUSICIANS.
(In the collection of Miss Feilden.)

The Decadent Period (1785–1830).—It is impossible to keep exactly to dates in any of these periods of rough classification. But in general the later period becomes more homely and a great number of mantel ornaments of a simple nature with rustic subjects were made for the homes of cottagers. These have trees as background and are Arcadian in subject. They are, when in this style, of the finnicking school of the Chelsea shepherds and shepherdesses known as of the boscage school. John Walton (1790–1839), made a great many figures in this manner, accompanied by a lamb, as well as a great number of Toby jugs. Another potter is Ralph Salt (1812–1840), whose name appears on the little Tambourine Player ([p. 379]), and probably the Musicians of the adjacent group are by him too. A larger figure of the Girl with Tambourine above is of the same period, though its maker cannot be identified.