Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840

Have you noticed this figure on Andrew Dando's site? He is a chimney sweep--a memento of the days when children crawled up chimneys to clean them. 

Below are two more version of this far-from-common figure. The figure on the left (Brighton Museum Collection) is almost certainly intended to be a sweep. Look at his dust-smeared face. But the figure on the right is a lot cleaner. Is he perhaps a representation of Winter? I am not sure. 

Seems that the mold for our sweep was multi-purpose, to put it mildly. We find the same mold used for this figure titled Clown, and yes, you guessed it: the figure is attributable to Ralph Wood. You will find it here, numbered A5.

Apparently Ralph Wood put this mold to good use yet again. This time, the figure has a bocage and is titled Sloth.  See it here in our Ralph Wood archive, numbered A5.

I was intrigued to find a figure of a similar form in Woolley and Wallis's upcoming auction (lot 584, October 12). The figure is described as possibly personifying Winter. It is white glazed. In other words, it was glazed like the figures above, but no enamels were painted atop the glaze. We find some English figures thus--but in this case the figure is not English.

The figure was manufactured by Fulda, one of the finest European porcelain manufactories. It was established in today's Germany by the Bishop of Fulda in 1764. The manufactory was adjacent to the Bishop's palace, and although its wares were highly prized in their day, the manufactory ran at a loss. But no problem: episcopal funds subsidized operations! Even in the days before the Green Movement, there was concern that the Fulda kilns' need for the finest beechwood for fuel was destroying neighboring forests. Despite it all, Fulda might have survived had not numerous church dignitaries and their families helped themselves to the finest Fulda wares, without payment. So in 1789, Fulga was dismantled.

What's the relationship between the Fulda figure and its English counterparts?  I think the Fulda figure is the source of the English figure.  Ralph Wood seems to have made the earliest English versions of this figure. Ralph Wood was active from 1782 to 1795--a period that included the final years of Fulda production. Prior to 1782, Ralph Wood was a merchant in Bristol. Here he must have seen the finest European porcelain figures displayed in city shops for an affluent clientele. I believe one or other of these inspired Ralph's modelling of the English figure.