GROUP OF FINELY COLOURED TOBY JUGS.
(Date 1790–1810.)
(In the possession of Mr. S. G. Fenton.)
There seems to be something added to old Staffordshire figures which have steeped themselves in somnolent repose these many years till they have become invested with a subtle human interest not easily disassociated from them.
The squire had his services of Worcester and of Crown-Derby, and the nobleman relegated his cases of fine porcelain to the care of his housekeeper, to dust and to safeguard till he came again to hunt and to shoot. But the cottager's Staffordshire figures were lovingly handled when the good wife furbished up her brass candlesticks, and they insensibly became part of the environment of the cottage home.
Here, then, is the key to the charm and magic which goes to the collecting of old Staffordshire figures, even of the decadent period. There is within them and around them and about them something redolent of a sturdy peasantry, something sad, something tinged with autumn days and autumn mists because they belong to days that have faded, and almost to a race that is extinct.
CUPID
Large coloured Staffordshire figure. (Height 17½ inches.) Bow and arrow in silver lustre.
(In the collection of Miss Feilden.)