Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840

The group below, a shepherd and shepherdess with their flock, is marked WALTON. This comes as no surprise because the group looks like so many others that John Walton made.

A mark is dead certain confirmation of attribution, but what do we do when we have an unmarked example in very much the same style? The gardening group below is a case in point. This example isn't marked, but is it not stylistically similar to the shepherd and shepherdess group above?

This group is also  very much in the style of other groups made by John Walton. Same intensity of color, same glazes, same type of modeling, same bocage. But none of that substantiates an attribution. Potters got their molds and materials from common sources. Because bocage molds were made in-house, the form of a bocage can frequently help us link a figure to a given maker. Unfortunately, this group has five-leaflet bocage fronds, and many potters used these generic fronds for their bocages. Thus, this bocage is no help in attributing this group. It must remain unattributed. So frustrating...but that is life.

How about this one? Same group again, but with yet another bocage!

This group again is very much in the style of John Walton. It uses a different bocage....but it is a bocage that Walton also used on rare occasions. Again, there is nothing about this group or its bocage that is exclusive to Walton. There is nothing that supports an attribution. The group also must remain unattributed.

Let's keep trying. Here we have one final candidate for a Walton attribution.

Again, this group uses a bocage that Walton used on rare occasions...but there is absolutely nothing about it that is specific to Walton. So this group too remains unattributed.

Come, come, Myrna. These groups all look so like marked Walton groups. Aren't you being too harsh?  I think not. My pet peeve (or peeve of the week....I have lots of peeves) is the way the Walton name gets slapped on anything with a bocage.  John Walton made more marked figure forms than did any other potter--in fact, he made over 80 figures and groups. If you could show me a gardening group like one of those above and with the WALTON mark on it, I would concede that John Walton just may have made the three gardening groups above. But until one shows up, there is nothing specific to link these groups to Walton.

There is only one feature on Walton figures that seems to substantiate an attribution.  Look at the pink rosette in the base of this group, center front.

I have only seen this rosette on figures that have the Walton mark. To my mind, it is as good as seeing WALTON impressed in clay. Hitherto, each and every time I have seen the rosette, I have been able to find the WALTON mark on the figure.  

While you are looking at FRIENDSHIP, above, note the little dog. Walton dogs always look like that, so if you see a little spaniel or some other pooch on a Walton figure, suspect restoration.  I do think this group is delicious...but then I too am always a sucker for a great bocage.

As for the three gardening groups....I am not convinced they were necessarily even made by the same pot bank.  But oh, how I would love to know.