Last month, I visited the Reserve Collection of The Potteries Museum, Stoke on Trent. What a treat! Words literally do fail me. While there, I was enchanted by a figure I had never seen before.
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Enamel-painted earthenware figure of a boy and his squirrel. H: 7-3/8'. Collection of The Potteries Museum.
Lovely, is it not? The squirrel seems to be a trained performing squirrel that lives in its box between 'acts.' Squirrels are so clever--their antics on my birdfeeder never cease to amaze--but I don't believe that anyone in our time has attempted to teach a squirrel tricks.

This week, I lectured in Providence, Rhode Island. I had a few extra minutes in the RISD Museum and it was suggested that I peep at the porcelain figure collection, which, I was given to understand, really didn't have anyone to look after it. It just happened to be there.  I am always interested in porcelain figures because I am seeking similarities to earthenware ones, so I was quite excited at the prospect of...who knows what? The figure collection was quite exquisite, and I am no lover of porcelain. It had been given to the museum in 1937. Surprise: there were even a few choice pieces of English pottery in it!  And then my eye caught this: (as snapped on my iPhone!)
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Boy with squirrel. Collection of RISD Museum.
The figure was described as tin-glazed earthenware, French, made at Saint-Clement, near Luneville, c1775.  So there we have it. If the dating is accurate--and I need to verify this--this figure inspired the Staffordshire figure. Why there is only one recorded example of the Staffordshire figure, I don't know. If anyone knows anything more about either of these figures, please share.

And talking about sharing, I want to share with you a picture that popped into my email box as I returned from Providence.
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English Cocker Spaniel, Emmy, with her babies just hours after their birth.
Late Wednesday night, our long-awaited puppy was born. Mother Emmy gave birth to 4 girls and 1 boy. Mom and kids are thriving--and I am beaming!
Two centuries ago, something very similar happened--and perhaps a potter's joy inspired him to create this unique figure group of Val and her pups.
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Staffordshire figure group C1820 tiltled VAL LAY. Only known example. It pairs with a single spaniel titled ROVER &. Side by side, the wording reads ROVER & VAL LAY. I guess the puppies were the result!
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 IMPORTANT PS:

"My bad" as that awful saying goes. I believe I made a mistake and fell into a trap. Months after writing this entry, I have concluded that the boy with squirrel in the Reserve Collection at the Hanley Museum is probably not English. Frankly, I wish I could examine it again, but the more I look at photographs the more certain I become that the figure just is not Staffordshire. I have since found another example of this figure, described as 19thC Passau (German manufacturer). For now, I conclude that the Hanley example originated somewhere in Europe--but not in the Staffordshire Potteries.
 


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