I am always tickled when I detect a "married" bocage figure. By "married," I mean a perfectly genuine figure with a genuine early bocage....but the bocage and the figure were made by two different pot banks. How can this happen? It comes about when a bocage breaks, and a restorer uses a piece of bocage from another figure to "restore" it. It takes knowledge of pot banks, their figure models, and their bocage structures to detect the resulting mismatch. If it has been well done, you really have to know your stuff to know that something is wrong, and I have seen dealers and auction house experts fooled---and that's why I am pleased when I am able to detect one of these bad marriages. Admittedly, it doesn't happen very often, but each time I get the same kick that I get out of solving a very difficult Sudoku!
This week, there is a married pearlware figure of a cow on eBay. Here the marriage of figure and bocage is so obvious and so poorly done that I didn't get any thrill out of detecting it. There is clearly something very "off" with this pearlware cow.
This week, there is a married pearlware figure of a cow on eBay. Here the marriage of figure and bocage is so obvious and so poorly done that I didn't get any thrill out of detecting it. There is clearly something very "off" with this pearlware cow.
The cow itself is a generic model, of the type that several potters made. The problem is that the bocage is a piece of "Sherratt" bocage. The bocage looks like it has been reattached, so your first thought might be that this is a simple repair: the bocage broke off and was stuck back on. The problem is that "Sherratt" did not make this cow model, so the "Sherratt" bocage does not belong here!
If you look at the cow from behind, you can see green marks to the left of the bocage. That is where the original bocage once touched the cow's back. The bocage sits awkwardly, and the restorer made up a leaf on the right side.
If you look at the cow from behind, you can see green marks to the left of the bocage. That is where the original bocage once touched the cow's back. The bocage sits awkwardly, and the restorer made up a leaf on the right side.
Below, you see how this little cow might have originally looked. This particularly good example (courtesy Andrew Dando) is unmarked, but it is the style of Salt figures. Other potters made very similar pearlware cows. See Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, Vol. 3 for more examples.
In the stock of Andrew Dando
Below is a small "Sherratt" cow pair, with this frequently-used "Sherratt" bocage (oak leaves with may flowers) as it should look.
So what's to be done with a quite ordinary pearlware cow that loses its bocage? I truly don't know. The figure is not exceptionally rare, so its value in that state is minimal. I admire someone's determination to preserve the figure for future generations, but I wouldn't want it on my shelves. If you want it, you can find it on eBay with a very high starting bid of £250 (item 111581066650) It is listed as "sold as is" and there is no mention of the replaced bocage. Buyer beware!
I am definitely not a fan of FaceBook because I have no interest in the dreary minutiae of others' lives. However, mystaffordshirefigures.com is on FaceBook, and from time to time I and others post things we find interesting on the mystaffordshirefigures group page. I posted the problem cow discussed here last week but thought it worthy of rehashing in detail here. Please join the group if you "do" FaceBook. You will find NO pictures of children, favorites plates of food, and the other clutter associated with personal FaceBook pages.
I am definitely not a fan of FaceBook because I have no interest in the dreary minutiae of others' lives. However, mystaffordshirefigures.com is on FaceBook, and from time to time I and others post things we find interesting on the mystaffordshirefigures group page. I posted the problem cow discussed here last week but thought it worthy of rehashing in detail here. Please join the group if you "do" FaceBook. You will find NO pictures of children, favorites plates of food, and the other clutter associated with personal FaceBook pages.
