Figs. 764 to 767.—The Four Elements, belonging to Mr. Boddam Castle.]
These series were accordingly executed, and all bear, in the examples now remaining, the mark T o[sideways ‘o’ symbol];. It would thus appear to be the modeller’s own mark, or contraction of his name.
The most authentic and interesting figure is a memorial to Richard Champion’s daughter Eliza, who died Oct. 13, 1779, aged fourteen. The figure is a monumental statuette of a mourning female figure, leaning on an urn, holding in her right hand a votive wreath and her left closed on the drapery. The urn and pedestal bear a long and very touching inscription. This interesting relic stands thirteen inches in height; it is in the possession of Mr. J. M. Desaussure, of Camden, South Carolina, who married a granddaughter of Champion. It is engraved on Fig. [759], through the courtesy of Mr. Owen. Two admirable figures (Figs. [768] and [769]) of a shepherd and milkmaid, marked with the To marks, are in the possession of Mr. Francis Fry, and a set of the four seasons in rustic juvenile figures, bearing the same mark, were in the Edkins collection (Figs. [760 to 763]). Another fine group is “Love subdued by Time,” in the Edkins collection (Fig. [770]). Busts were also made; but as these and the examples made at Plymouth are not marked, and are made of the same body, and by the same workmen, it is manifestly impossible to correctly appropriate them.
Figs. 768 and 769.—Belonging to Mr. Francis Fry, F.S.A.
A cup, part of the Harford service, bears in the bottom in the inside the +, the initials J H (of Joseph Harford), and the date 1774, and is the earliest known dated example of Bristol china. Another excellent dated example, bearing the repeated monogram W C on the inside, has on the bottom the +, 1776, and figure 1. The pounce-box (Fig. [772]) bears the × and figure 3.
