Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840

Staffordshire figure collectors can pick from a range of figures that cater to all tastes. If those pretty little gardeners are not your thing, how about these?

What are they, you might ask? Well, a pair of tritons, of course. And what is a triton? If you watched Disney's Little Mermaid II you would know. Or Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art will tell you that a triton is a merman, half man and half fish, with fins at the hips.  Triton was the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and in the classics tritons generally escort Neptune and play around in the waves, blowing shell-shaped trumpets. The subject inspired the Wood and Caldwell manufactory to model Tritons in pearlware figure form, sometime between 1791 and 1818--I suspect earlier in this period rather than later.

We attribute our Staffordshire tritons to Wood and Caldwell based on stylistic similarity to that manufactory's wares. Also, marked Wood and Caldwell triton figures are recorded. Falkner, plate XLVIII, shows one with a brass nozzle attached so it serves as a candlestick. One of a pair, it is finished in a bronze enamel that simulates true bronze. Ugly thing, me thinks, but each to his own!

Eliza Meteyard notes triton figure forms were produced by Josiah Wedgwood prior to the formation of the Wood and Caldwell partnership.  Flaxman modeled a triton for Wedgwood in 1775, and such a figure--probably made in basalt--almost certainly inspired the Wood and Caldwell figures.