Recently, the fabulous plaque shown below crossed my path. It is unusual, perhaps even unique, in two ways: first, I can't recall another plaque with  two hangers arranged in this way; and second and more importantly, it portrays a pivotal battle in European history.

The scene depicts the Battle of Vitoria. The figure on horseback is identified by a ribbon beneath impressed WELLINGTON, while the ribbon beneath the soldiers to the left is impressed VITTORIA {sic}.

The trouble is that I am not convinced this figure was modeled to be the Wellington. It is possible that the painter simply scratched "Duke Wellington" into the paint as an afterthought. Several variations on this model exist....but as yet another titled example has not come to light. (See www.mystaffordshirefigures.com/blog/duke-of-wellington)

When it comes to busts, we get somewhat luckier. Indeed, Wellington was modeled in bust form---but, whereas the potters created multiple variations of busts of other men who were long-dead and rather obscure, the bust shown below is their only depiction of Wellington. ​We can be sure the bust is Wellington because DUKE OF WELLINGTON is impressed on the front of the socle--impossible to see in this photo, I know.

Below is the reverse of the bust. The mark impressed on the lower edge of the socle....trust me, it is there!...is that of WOOD & CALDWELL. This tells us that it was made between 1814 (when Wellington became a duke) and 1818  (when the Wood & Caldwell partnership dissolved.) This bust, in the Wisbech & Fenland Museum, is 11.5" tall, but a 22" version (similarly marked) is in the Potteries Museum.​

The Wellington bust was based upon a portrait bust by the English sculptor Joseph Nollekens (1737–1823). Nollekens carved his work in 1813 and exhibited it at the Royal Academy that year.  Wellington's bared neck, blank eyes, and haughty expression appealed to the classicists and romantics of the day, and, given the Duke's fame, other artists were quick to jump on the bandwagon and replicate the bust in assorted materials. 

​I was intrigued to find a plaster version of Nolleken's bust in the collection of the Boston Athenaeum, gifted in 1817. At just over 22" in size, it (or another just like it) may well have been the design source for the 22" pottery bust in the Potteries Museum.

In the pre-Victorian era, Staffordshire portrayals of the Duke of Wellington appeared on jugs and other useful wares, but when it comes to figures...sadly, it just didn't happen.

With peace secured after Waterloo, Wellington  re-entered politics. Known as the Iron Duke because of his fiery resolve, he served as prime minister for two years and died in 1852. ​From the 1840s, with the Duke in his final years, there seems to have been an awakening appreciation of his contribution to his nation, and Victorian potters portrayed Wellington as the elder statesman that he was.

The intricate molds required to fashion early Staffordshire figures were costly and were not protected by patent law. Because plagiarism was commonplace in the Potteries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we sometimes see remarkably similar figures forms emanating from multiple pot banks.

Of course, molds often changed hands legitimately. Certainly, when a potter died his molds would usually be sold to another. Thus, when Ralph Wood died in 1795,  the molds for his gardener figures (first pair below) were among those that passed into the hands of Richard Dudson, who set up shop in 1800 and fashioned figures of the same form (second pair below.)
​

Molds also changed hands for reasons other than death. For example, the family group below marked TITTENSOR was made by Charles Tittensor, active  from around 1803 into the 1820s. This group is the only one of its kind that we can attribute to Titensor, so perhaps he didn't have much success with it.  I speculate that he threw in the towel and sold the figure molds to another potter.

The figure molds Tittensor used became the property of the Patriotic Group pot bank, which made many examples of the figures in multiple settings.

It is common to see the same figures placed before different bocages or even in in entirely different settings. The potters tried every trick in the book to get the most bang for their buck (or pound) out of their molds. For example, the lady and gentleman beneath do duty in several formats, all courtesy of the "Sherratt" pot bank.

The cut-off date for so-called "early" Staffordshire figures is 1840. After that, styles and tastes changed, and economic necessity mandated the manufacture of much simpler figures. So what happened to all those costly molds?

Of course, change did not happen overnight, but pondering the transition is interesting. For example, look at the figures below, which are smaller-scale look-alikes of the "Sherratt" family above. Did "Sherratt" make them? Because these figures do not exhibit a single "Sherratt" attribute, I would say not....but "Sherratt' continued into the 1840s, so it is possible that this pot bank copied or adapted  existing molds  to meet economic imperatives and consumer tastes.

Recently, I came across the figure below, made from the same molds in around 1845. You have to wonder why the molds were pushed aside for some thirty years. And is the later figure an atypical product from the Wood manufactory, or did some other potter buy or copy the molds needed to make it?

The very rare figure of the highwayman Dick Turpin seen below left is somewhat transitional in style and dates from the late 1830s. To its right is the same figure decorated in a typical Victorian fashion and made just a few years later. What better example of the transition could we have? 

This site is now over ten years old, and I am amazed that, given the hundreds of blog articles I have already published here, there is anything left to say! But early Staffordshire figures never cease to surprise, and something new is constantly turning up. Case in point is this tiny courting couple with a broad bocage, which sold at auction recently.

This brings to four the grand total of similar little couples that I have recorded, and two of the three others are shown below.

Groups like this are generally referred to as "dandies," and I admit to including them among the dandies in my publications. But in my mind they are really courting couples. For one, true dandies groups always stand differently, with a swaggering stance, like the three couples on the left below.

Add to that, the little courting couples comprise the very same figures we find on New Marriage Act groups, as you see below.

Next, the figure of the water carrier, below. Rare as it is, it is recognizable to sharp-eyed collectors as one of our earlier figures,. Made by Ralph Wood circa 1785, it typically looks like the example I show here.

This water carrier lady, here titled A Galego,  also occurs decorated in colored glazes and bearing Ralph Wood's mark, and an example is recorded impressed "67" in the Ralph Wood manner. It is one of several figures that Wood made with a Spanish theme or title.  

Ralph Wood modified some of his figures to accommodate the nascent enthusiasm for bocage, and, in this spirit, he removed her cloak, and fitted a bocage, as you see on the figure below. The jug atop her head seems to have been modified at the same time. I have never seen another figure like her.

I believe that nearly every early Staffordshire figure has a companion, and Galego, is no exception. Ralph Wood designed a musician titled A Gasconion. The example below is impressed "66".

Ralph Wood similarly spiffied up his Gasconian with a bocage, as you can just see in this old catalog image.

Ralph Wood died in 1795, and it seems some of his molds landed in the hands of Richard Dudson, who established a manufactory shortly after. The Galego and Gasconion molds were clearly among them, and Dudson produced less refined versions of these figures.

While the Dudson figures aesthetically cannot hold a candle to the Wood ones, their bright colors and naive clunkiness have an appeal of their own. And those large cloaks, much bigger than the Wood garments, are stunning.

We live in a marvelous age! From my home in Dallas, I am fortunate to be able to keep in touch with collectors of early Staffordshire figures in the US and UK, as well as those further afield. I value the friendships forged over the years and am always excited to hear of additions to my distant collector friends' shelves. To me, the most interesting collections are those that embrace unusual figures of great merit, figures that both tantalize their owners' intellects as well as please their eyes. Just recently, a valued collector friend sent me photographs of two figures that he acquired in Portugal, of all places.

The first figure, below, portrays St. John the Baptist and is titled "S. JOAO", presumably the Portuguese equivalent of St. John. The figure is extraordinarily rare, the only other example I know of being in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (See Vol. 2 of Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840). Because John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God, there is a lamb next to the figure.

This figure is impressed "4" on the reverse. The example in the Fitzwilliam Museum in impressed "No. 4". ​Figures such as this were made by Enoch Wood for the Portuguese market in the 1820s, and this figure may well have been in Portugal for the last two hundred or so years. Other figures also numbered and styled in this manner are among the Enoch Wood shards of circa 1825 excavated from the Burslem Old Town Hall site in 1938. Several of these figures appear to once have had metal fittings. In this case, John the Baptist has a  hole on the top of his head, and the accumulation of wax around it suggests it accommodated a candleholder of sorts.

This figure is impressed "N. 5" on the reverse. The example I show in Vol. 2 of Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840 is impressed "No. 5".

The figures or John the Baptist and St. Emanuel are both a good eight to nine inches tall.  I suspect they have lived together in Portugal since the 1820s, but they have now been repatriated to the UK.

​Did you notice the holes in St. Emanuel's chest, right above his nipples? There are similar holes in his ears. That's because a long-ago owner modified the figure to reflect Emanuel's martyrdom. He clearly went to great trouble to do so and had high-quality (perhaps silver) arrows made to fit in the holes. The hole in the top of Emanuel's head, on the other hand, is original and was intended to accommodate a metal object of sorts--perhaps a halo. 

The figures Enoch Wood made for his Portuguese customers all seem to have been religious in nature, and many were numbered on the reverse. How many numbered figure models were made? I suggest that there had to have been at least 11 figures in the numbered series because the unpainted figure  shown below is impressed "No. 11" on the reverse. Impressed  "S. SEBASTI. O, M"  (St. Sebastian Obiit Martyris) on the front, it represents the martyred St. Sebastian.  Now in the Potteries Museum, it is among material excavated from the Enoch Wood site. 

If the figure of St. Sebastian looks vaguely familiar to you, it is probably because St. Sebastian comes for sale relatively frequently. Too often touted as "early,"every example I have seen can be attributed to the Kent factory, which seems to have produced these figures in abundance circa 1900. 

Also in the Potteries Museum and also known only from an unpainted figure excavated from the Enoch Wood site is the figure below of the virgin martyr St. Barbara. It is impressed "S. Barbar. V. M." (St. Barbara Virgin Martyris) on the front and "No.3" on the reverse.

Below, and again known from only this one example, is this lovely figure of St. Lucy, impressed "S. LUZIA" and "No. 9".

Yet another of the numbered figures is this Pieta, showing Mary cradling Jesus in her arms, and impressed "No. 6" behind.

Although this Pieta is untitled, but the only other recorded example, an unpainted group in the Potteries Museum, is impressed "N. S. DA PIEDADE" on the front and "No. 6" on the reverse. Seen below, notice that Jesus is missing from Mary's arms, and I suspect that this group, again excavated from the site associated with Enoch Wood, may well have been a reject.

To summarize, I show our six Enoch Wood figures in this numbered series below. Assuming there were eleven models, we are over halfway to recording them all...but the number sequence may well have run quite a bit higher. These are all impressive figures that are interesting, eye-catching, and particularly rare--in some cases, unique. It is a sad reflection on collecting tastes that most collectors would overlook them. 

After posting this last month, a collector with an important collection kindly let me know that he and his wife too have a Pieta, like the figure impressed "6" above. And scouring the web revealed yet another, in the archive of Madelena, which I show below.

If collecting were merely about purchasing, the fun would soon fade. Buying and buying and buying, rather like overeating, is ultimately unrewarding. For me, the fun is in the "hunt"--that relentless pursuit of a particular figure to fill a gap in my collection. Of course, this takes endless vigilance that is rewarded only sometimes.

About fifteen years ago, I bought the little dog below at auction in the UK. Titled "& VAL LAY", she clearly was one of a pair, and I would have loved to have owned her mate too.

At the time, I recognized VAL  as having all the attributes of a "Sherratt" figure, so I looked in Malcolm Hodkinson's fantastic little book  "Sherratt? A Natural Family." My little dog, whom I dub Val, was not recorded in the book, but Malcolm had devoted a whole chapter to a sub-group of "Sherratt" figures that he titled "The Rover Group." Who is Rover? Well, he is none other than the companion figure to Val.

I took Val to England in around 2004 to photograph her together with Rover, who lives in a private collection. As you see, they make a perfect pairing, and the  titles read "ROVER & VAL LAY." 

As pretty as the pair is, these dogs reside  an ocean apart. I have searched for all these years to find a Rover to pair with my Val, but to no avail. The only other Rover I have seen is the dog below, untitled, with a different "Sherratt" bocage and a black rather than deep brown coat.

Once upon a time, I am sure there was an untitled figure of Val to pair with the untitled Rover, but until last month I had not come across another Val of any sort. Then, unexpectedly, the figure of Val below came my way. This time her coat is black, and she has a "Sherratt" bocage not seen on any of the other Rover and Val pooches.

So now my problems have compounded: I have two figures of Val, BOTH of which need a Rover. I must continue looking!

Unrecorded figures do keep coming to light. Recently, John Howard added this sweet little cow spill vase to his site. The floral garlands on the base are a definitive "Sherratt" feature, and the cow is of the same form as other "Sherratt" cows, so I am confident of the attribution.

I was still mulling this nice addition to the body of "Sherratt" figures, when, believe it or not, the companion vase, below, went through auction

What are the odds of two unrecorded figures that form a pair surfacing on the market within weeks of each other? Apparently, it can happen, and not knowing what will turn up next makes collecting exciting.

Recently, I bought a small pair of figures at auction in the US. Thrown into a lot of five figures, they certainly did not get the respect they deserve. They are an unrecorded pair of enamel-painted figures that can be attributed to Ralph Wood and date to circa 1785. I know of figures of this form only from a pair in the literature, said to be in the Southport Museum. Both the museum figures are unpainted and are impressed "Ra. Wood Burslem"; and the male figure is impressed "78" in the manner of other Ralph Wood figures.

It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the auction house did not catalog this charming early pair in a manner that reflects their significance and rarity. On the other hand, how many collectors care? Collecting has, in my opinion, reached new lows, with far too much emphasis being placed on cuteness and perfection (never mind if the latter has only been achieved with considerable effort from an expert restorer.)  

The year 2018 has, so far, been rather dull in that the supply of figures coming to auction has almost dried up. Disappointingly, I have made no major discoveries of unrecorded early Staffordshire pottery figures. No new bullbaitings, menageries, or large bocage groups of any sort---but the smaller figures continue to reward my aggressive sleuthing. Figures on the subject of bird nesting have been remarkably satisfying, so let's look a few of these discoveries.

To start, most of us are familiar with the sweet bird nesting figures made by Ralph Salt. Perhaps we remember them for no other reason than we have drooled over them in print, because these picture-pretty figures are very hard to find today. 

The pair above is impressed with the maker's mark SALT on the reverse. Other potters too used these molds to make identical or closely similar figures. For example, the boy alongside is marked HALL.

About two years ago, I was pleased to discover the little bird nester girl below on the site of the late Aurea Carter. Clearly the figure is from the same molds as the SALT girl, above.

Although this little figure is unmarked, it displays several distinctive features that enable attribution to the pot bank I have dubbed the Blue Group (See Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, volume 1). Where there is a single figure, there was usually once a pair, and just this past month a Blue Group pair appeared at auction.

The "Sherratt" pot bank is a favorite among collectors who prize its stunning table  groups--ale benches, weddings, christenings, bullbaitings, and, of course, menageries, to name a few. But small "Sherratt" figures are just as sweet, and they sell for a teeny fraction of the price because they are largely overlooked. "Sherratt" too made figures on the bird nesting theme, and I had recorded the two below  in my publications.

About a year or so ago, I came across the little "Sherratt" group below. Although damaged, I strongly suspect that it too is a bird nesting group and that the figures once held a bird and a nest.

My small discoveries are immensely rewarding. Understanding their connections to other figures helps me make sense out ot the plethora of figures that were once made and instills a little intellectual rigor into our collecting field. Best of all, these small figures can usually be found for a pittance. They have not had the exposure that glitzier groups have had, but, to my mind, a small unrecorded figure is of more interest and value than yet another of the larger, costlier figures collectors covet.

The smallest variations in figures can be quite perplexing. In Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, volume 3, I recorded seven variations of this boy with a bird's nest in his hat. I have recorded far more than the seven figures shown in print....and in each case the hat is held in the left hand. ​

As I discover figures that contribute to our published collecting knowledge, I add them to earlystaffordshirefigures.com. Included on that site are figures decorated with colored glazes and those decorated with colored glazes, like the pairs below. If you have anything you think should be added, please share it with me at myrna.schkolne@gmail.com.

The drop-dead-gorgeous equestrians spill vase shown below is in Brighton Museum's Willett Collection, and it truly is the most eye-catching of Staffordshire pottery groups.

Also in the Willett Collection is the  coursing spill vase, below. Like the equestrians vase, it can be attributed to the Leather Leaf Group. Although both vases are from the same pot bank, I would not have thought them to be companion pieces...but read along and learn with me!

A while ago, I visited a private collection. The collectors own an equestrians spill vase (very like that at the top of this column.) They also own the spill vase below, which I had not seen before. To my eye, this vase with its single equestrian seemed to be the companion to the coursing spill vase shown immediately above.  

When I visit collections, I often find collectors have things tucked away, and this visit was no exception. As we got talking after dinner, we opened up a lower cabinet housing items that were not on display.  To my surprise, a coursing spill vase emerged. We placed it alongside the vase with a single male equestrian, and the match was perfect.

A light bulb went on in my rather slow brain: surely these two vases belonged with the equestrians vase that the collector had in a distant room? I couldn't reach for it fast enough...and sure enough, all three vases were painted in the same palette. I arranged them side by side, and lo and behold: we had a stunning garniture. Below is a rather inadequate picture that I snapped with my camera in that first flush of excitement. See what I mean?

I believe that this garniture portrays a circus routine rather than real-life hunting. Remember, in those days ladies did not hunt....but the circus staged re-enactments of hunts, complete with baying hounds, and many of the circus's performers were skilled horse women, who who took part in these staged entertainments.

The collector who owns this garniture was delighted to discover he had it! He had acquired a collection of figures very many years ago, but he had not realized that these three vases belonged together. He has stuck a note in each vase to remind future owners (and sloppy auction houses) that each vase is related to the others.

I had assumed that three was the sum total of the related vases in this garniture, but something else has turned up. Just recently, this lot went through auction.

The group on the right is rather like the one  in the three-piece garniture, but this time the dog is standing rather than lying. On the other hand, the group on the left is quite different.. Hmm, does this mean that garniture could potentially have five pieces or seven or nine.? Of course, we will never know. Meanwhile, just one of these vases stands very handsomely on its own!

Another strange thing about the newly-discovered vase on the left is the small cottage perched atop it. It does make me wonder whether there was once a cottage atop the steps on the vase on the left of the three-piece garniture. I have otherwise seen a cottage of this form only once, as below.

Whereas all the spill vases shown here can be attributed to the Leather Leaf Group, I have no basis for attributing this petite cottage, but is it not the sweetest treasure?

This post raises more questions than it answers, but if collecting were not mentally stimulating it would be a rather boring pastime, would it not?

The Staffordshire pottery figure group below is known as Liberty and Matrimony, the idea being that the bird on her hand represents Freedom, while the cage he holds symbolizes the restraints of marriage. Made by Ralph Wood circa 1785, it may well be the earliest bocage group in my collection Although I have seen similar examples over the years, this is the first that has been right for my collection. Firstly, it is a very attractive example in really nice condition. Secondly and unusually, much of the bocage is intact--and what a lovely bocage too. And thirdly, it is impressed "89" beneath. Yes, I would have preferred it to have been marked "Ra. Wood Burslem," but the impressed number is the next closest thing to the Ralph Wood mark.

Titled COURTSHIP and MATRIMONY, they read, 

I bought my pearlware Liberty and Matrimony group on eBay, where it was listed initially as Italian porcelain. By the time the seller learned the error of his ways and corrected the mistake it seems to have been too late, because I bought it for a ridiculously small amount of money. Price aside, I am thrilled to have it.

Another recent purchase--this time not at a given-away price--is a splendid pair of figures of Simon and Iphigenia. I first saw a pair just like this when I photographed at the Wisbech and Fenland Museum. My friend Nick Burton was with me, and we were both really taken with the museum's pair. The figures are taller than most. He is 9.5" and she is a hair under 9", and they have a presence that a photo just doesn't capture.​

Simon (spelled Cymon) is the hero in The Decameron, a novella set in Cyprus and written around 1350 by Giovanni Boccaccio. The narrative tells of Cymon, who, deemed a dolt by his aristocratic father, is sent to live and work with his father’s slaves in the countryside. In this environment, Cymon becomes increasingly coarse. One day, he comes upon highborn Iphigenia, slumbering in a field. He is so smitten by her beauty that his noble bearing surfaces and his father reinstates him. Iphigenia was promised to another, but this tale of wars and abduction in the name of love ends happily with Cymon and Iphigenia united for life. In 1700, John Dryden published his Fables, Ancient and Modern, containing the story as a poem. For the record, the figure of Simon is modeled from a figure Paul Louis Cyfflé made for Lunéville, but the origins of Iphigenia are not known.

Although my figures of Simon and Iphigenia are unmarked, I believe Ralph Wedgwood made them circa 1795, and I say this because the titles are impressed in a small serif font found only on figures associated with Wedgwood. Below is my Wedgwood "Charity," and you can see she is marked (on the reverse) and titled in the same font.

The devil is in the details when it comes to attributing figures, and it is easy to slip up, which I have done with this pair of figures of Neptune and Venus.

Venus is titled (twice) in small impressed serif font on the reverse, and for that reason I attributed this pair to Wedgwood. My conclusion has always nagged at  me a little because the enamels on this pair are streets superior to those found on other figures made by Wedgwood or by any other potter for that matter. The silky touch of the glaze and the color palette shouts "Neale," and that made me look at the font more closely. Indeed, the font used for VENUS differs from that used on marked Wedgwood figures in that:

• Wedgwood letters are all the same size, whereas the "V" in Venus is larger than the other letters.
• Wedgood letters are a tad blockier.  

 I have to conclude that Wedgwood did not make my Venus and Neptune!

So who did make Venus and Neptune? I fall back on my Neale hypothesis. Add to this, the combination of  circles and dots  on the garment Venus wears is similar to that frequently seen on other Neale figures...but  also on a few figures I just can't attribute. Possibly Neale made this Neptune and Venus, but I have no argument that would hold up in court. On the other hand, trying to disprove theories is how scientific reasoning evolves, so why should our approach to pottery be any different? I look forward to someone stepping forth with a better hypothesis.

And while I am eating humble pie and pointing out errors, here's one more. In Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, I show the figure of a horse, below. I could not examine the figure because all I had was this one gritty photo of it, but I included it in  the HORSES chapter, because I really thought it was a horse.

Then a year or two ago, the figure below appeared, complete with horn. Clearly my "horse" was intended to be a unicorn!

If I live long enough, I am sure I will find that each and every early Staffordshire figure has a companion, and so I was delighted to receive the photo below just this past week. Sure enough, the unicorn's companion is a lion. As these beasts are the supporters on either side of England's royal coat of arms, the pairing is quite appropriate. Aren't they lovely?

I hate making mistakes--let's face it, nobody enjoys being wrong--but nothing ventured nothing gained. Each mistake teaches me a little more and helps me inch along the learning curve.

Every six months or so, I brace for the tedious task of updating my other website, earlystaffordshirefigures.com. That site hosts newly discovered Staffordshire figures, variations on figures, and anything and everything I have gleaned since publishing Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, vols. 1-4. Each time I update, I am amazed at how much I have learned in the process.

Several of the new additions to earlystaffordshirefigures.com have helped me fill in blanks in our knowledge base. For example,  I have long owned the single figure of the season Summer, seen below. The figure is of dazzlingly fine quality, and she stands well on her own. The garlands on the base are akin to "Sherratt'' signatures, so I confidently attribute the figure to "Sherratt."  Perplexingly, she has been the only "Sherratt" Season known to me, but I have firmly believed that  "Sherratt" would have made all four Seasons, not just one.

The long dry spell on "Sherratt" Seasons ended last month with the appearance of the figure below, a "Sherratt" Autumn.

The "Sherratt" Autumn appears to be of the same fine quality as the "Sherratt" Summer, and, as you see, those same garlands are atop his base. Although these two figures had different homes for Lord knows how long, I am working on reuniting them. May I only live long enough to discover the  remaining "Sherratt" Seasons!

The little reading boy below has long been an attribution riddle. I have always been sure he was made by John Dale--the facial features are so like those of many other Dale figures--but I lacked evidence that would stand up in court!

I was doubly delighted when not one but two figures appeared recently confirming a Dale attribution. The floral garlands on the base of the boy below are a definitive Dale feature, and the companion girl--a hitherto unrecorded figure--has them too. 

The sweet small pair below are new additions to my knowledge base, and like all things newly discovered or unrecorded in today's post, you will also find them at earlystaffordshirefigures.com

A collector contacted me recently about the little bust below. Any idea who she is? Her hauntingly sweet face is impressed on my mind, but I am stumped as to whom she might portray. If you know, please shout. I will be adding her to earlystaffordshirefigures.com next go-around, and I hope we can collectively identify her by then.

A new discovery that may not be everyone's cup of tea is the figure of St. Anne below. It would have been made by Enoch Wood in the mid-1820sa for the Portuguese market.

This plump theatrical figure portrays an actor in the role of the broom lady, and I have not seen another quite like it. The figure's rather beefy form hints at it being Mr. Liston, the renowned comic, who appeared as the Broom Lady in the 1820s. The figure is decorated in colors that suggest it was made in Scotland or perhaps by one of the northeast pot banks.

I had not seen the model of Shakespeare below until it cropped up recently. It is quite unlike the more classical, refined models we usually see. In short, it looks more like pottery than porcelain, and the red and yellow enamels are eye-catching.

The figure below was known to me only from a small black and white photo, so I was thrilled to see it in full color when it went through auction at Skinners recently. The carefully posed youth is Adonis, known to the Greeks for his remarkable beauty. The figure is important because it is unique and it is marked WEDGWOOD, so it was made by Ralph Wedgwood in the late eighteenth century. Its rarity was appreciated, and it made a good price at auction.

The Grand Finale for my roundup of some recent discoveries is this very large figure that probably portrays the nymph Salmacis, whose body was united with that of Hermaphroditus to form a single being that was both male and female. At 73 cms or 28.74 inches, it is the second tallest figure on record. 

Collecting for pure beauty is pleasurable enough, but knowing the features that make a figure rare or unusual adds another very rewarding dimension to my collecting journey. 

Collecting old objects, I am told, has fallen from favor with millennials, who are said to believe that money is for buying memories, not material objects. They prefer splurging on fleeting pleasures--think spa time, rock concert tickets, sky diving adventures--that involve no long-term commitment. In short, millennials want to spend on experiences rather than "things."  They believe that their adventures will give them more social media sharing opportunities, more to talk (or boast) about with their friends (all those people that they encounter predominantly in cyberspace.) As millennials sit in their boringly bare minimalist homes gazing at their iPads, they have a lot to learn!  We collectors know that owning a beautiful object is an enduringly thrilling experience. Again and again, handling it makes your heart beat a little faster, and you catch your breath as its sheer beauty overwhelms you. Who can say that about a long-gone frivolous pleasure? 

​I bought the plaque below known as Patricia and her Lover many years ago.  Each time I look at it or even think of it, I catch my breath. It is impressively large at 13.8" and was made circa 1785. It is attributed to Ralph Wood.

In my early collecting days, I fell in love with this plaque, pictured (but the negative was flipped) in John Hall's Staffordshire Portrait Figures, and I often opened that little book just to gaze at it. The colors are particularly strong, and they are in the glaze itself, which makes them especially vibrant. Patricia and her admirer  are in super-high relief...but it is the faces that grab my attention. Clearly, Patricia is flirting with him, and they both know it. Her coquetry, his lust, and the little dog's playfulness are age-old emotions that bring to life an object made about 230 years ago. 
​
In the 1990s we regularly visited New York, and I would admire the pottery displayed in Leo Kaplan’s beautiful Madison Avenue shop window. For a while the window held a pair of separate plaques of Patricia and her lover, like the pair below.

Below is the source engraving for these plaques. It is titled  Jack on a Cruise and sub-titled Avast there! Back your mainsail.” Patricia’s billowing skirt is no doubt the “mainsail,”and it has been suggested that the plaque was perhaps a commentary on “the extravagant millinery of the end of the 18th century.” Clearly, the plaque should also be called "Jack on a Cruise" rather than "Patricia and her Lover," and I don't know why it is not.

​A similar engraving on the same theme is also found transfer-printed on mugs, as seen on the creamware mug alongside.

For completion, I note that Ralph Wood is thought to be the potter who also made this subject on a square plaque, as shown below. I know of only this colored example (again, does it still exist?), as well as one plaque that was left in the white (in the Willett Collection). As you see, the figures on the square plaque differ from those on the oval one. And I suspect the design does not have the astonishingly high relief found on the oval plaque.

My oval plaque pictured at the top of this post is an awesome object—and I mean that in the literal sense of the words.  I pause in silent homage each time I look at it. When I take it off the wall to handle it—which I do always for special visitors—I still get goosebumps. Despite its size, it is very light because it is so thinly potted. The relief is very high. The back is dry (unglazed) and coated with dirt from the kiln and from hanging in rooms heated by coal. The inked mark on the reverse  reads “ASPATRIA CUMBERLAND” and is probably the mark of a former owner who lived in the Cumberland town of Aspatria.

Because plaques like this have been documented in the literature for many years, it is easy to conclude that a plethora of them exist. Not so! Rather, best I can tell, the same two plaques seem to have been recorded again and again--although telling one from the other in old, black and white photographs is exacting.

Today, I looked up my collection records to see what I paid for our Patricia and her Lover, and it was shockingly expensive.....but it was worth every penny because it is an experience in pleasure that I have enjoyed for ages and intend enjoying for the rest of my days. Will younger generations feel the same way about their frivolous pleasurable experiences? I doubt it. They believe objects depreciate while memories appreciate. Oh, do they have a lot to learn!