My blog postings go up every four days. I pride myself on sticking to that schedule. So what went wrong this week? I traveled with an iPad and iPhone, neither of which would support Adobe Flash, a prerequisite for publishing to my site. To make matters worse, the AT&T signal on the west coast was problematic to put it kindly. Talk about frustration!  Anyway, I apologize for the break in communication. Henceforth I promise to travel with a PC. 

You may see this odd little figure from time to time. Know who she is? Not very obvious, I will admit, but she represents Thalia, the Muse of Comedy.
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Thalia's counterpart is Melopome, the Muse of Tragedy, and she usually holds at tragic mask. You can see her thus in my March 1 2010  blog posting by clicking here.

But what did Staffordshire potters know of tragic theatrical masks? Seemed to them that nothing was more tragic than a funeral, so the counterpart to our little figure of Comedy is a uniquely Staffordshire-inspired version of Tragedy...standing beside a tombstone.
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And, to prove I am not making this up, here is a similar figure, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, titled TRAGEDY.  Perhaps her maker knew she would reside in a museum case for much of her life, never again to have the sun warm her form?

Figures such as these can be found with a modest price tag, but they add immeasurable interest to our collections. Happy hunting!
 


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