Early Staffordshire pearlware and creamware pottery figures

Antique Staffordshire Pottery Marriage Group with Sheep??

10/25/2016

I check auctions obsessively in my determination to find unusual pearlware figures, and so it was that I came across a lot, listed without a picture, that included an "antique Staffordshire pottery marriage group with sheep." Somewhere in the wording, the group was described as early nineteenth century, and I knew something was wrong because I have yet to record an early marriage group that included sheep. I requested a picture, and look what I found!

antique Staffordshire figure, antique Staffordshire pottery, Staffordshire dandies, pearlware dandies, Myrna Schkolne, bocage dandies

This petite couple is not at the altar. Rather, they are a dandy and dandizette going about the business of being fashionable, albeit with a sheep, a goat, and two dogs at their feet. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Small dandy groups sometimes occur with bocage, like the pair (attributed to Dale) alongside, but I have yet to see them with a hoop-shaped bocage or even a lone attendant animal.

The condition report that I requested stated that a small animal might be missing from the base, but I decided to go for the group anyway. I am NOT a morning person. The hardest thing I do each day is get out of bed, but, despite that, I was up at 4 a.m. US Central time to bid on the mid-morning auction the UK. I was successful, but also had to acquire two tacky Victorian figures and a sweet little yellow ware cup that the auction house lumped into the same lot!

When my parcel arrived, I could not wait to open it. The dandies group was covered in a black sooty like substance, all except for the center front of the base. This was sparkling clean because the auction house had rubbed it in an attempt to see if the two specks of clay/kiln dirt in that area indicated a missing beastie. Fortunately, nothing was missing. All was as it should be, as you see below, with the two offending bits of clay well glazed over..

Note that the base is rather unusual in that it is has a dish-like recess on the top to accommodate the cast of characters.

I always look beneath a figure first thing. I love the way the light plays on the unpainted but glazed surface. It never fails to please me.

I am thrilled with my new acquisition. Once again, it reminds me that the best things so often come in small parcels!

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Milk maids

10/9/2016

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Early enamel-painted Staffordshire figures of milkmaids are most commonly small, pretty much on the lines of the milkmaid with cow below (attributed to the "Patriotic Group" pot bank.) But don't think for a moment that groups like these are easy to find. They are not, and more so if you want an example in good condition.

antique Staffordshire pottery figure, pearlware figure, bocage figure, Myrna Schkolne, Staffordshire cow

On the other hand, Pratt ware milkmaids with cows are found more frequently. Usually, they are in the form of cow creamers, but sometimes not. In the pair below, a milk maid stands with a large cow and calf. This model, like the companion gentleman with cow, consistently occur decorated in underglaze colors and were made in Yorkshire, rather than in the Staffordshire Potteries.

Courtesy John Howard

I have only encountered this particular cow model decorated in enamel-colors once. Was the enamel-painted milkmaid group alongside made in Yorkshire or Staffordshire? I don't know.

Of all the groups incorporating a milkmaid, the one below is my favorite. The group is unique. The scale is quite large, the little cow on wobbly legs is adorable, and the bocage is stunning.

The prize for being the most unusual and, to my mind, the ugliest, milkmaid is the figure below. It is in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Courtesy the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Courtesy the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Staffordshire's potters created the milkmaid above as a copy of a figure by the Imperial Porcelain Factory of St. Petersburg, alongside. This perhaps accounts for its un-English appearance.

Another large and unique milkmaid-with-cow group, currently in the stock of John Howard, is below. I like the simple, bold design.

Courtesy John Howard

At the opposite end of the size spectrum is the unique little group below. This sweet group is actually impressed MILK MAID on the front of the base. Sadly, it has a fatal flaw: the milk maid's head is replaced, but I live in hope of finding a perfect example.