As I have said repeatedly, I take enormous pleasure in finding unusual or rare small or damaged figures that might not make it onto dealer's shelves. The economics is against them because a puny price brings with it a puny profit. Lest you question my commitment, the only addition to our family collection this entire year is the little figure on the left below.

I have had the male equestrian for several years, and I bought him because I had not seen another like him, although RTS Antiques (Damon Revans-Turner) recently had one. Then by chance this year the companion female appeared. Is she a dead match? No, but she is as close as I will ever get, and they stand happily together. So much pleasure for a very modest outlay.

I am always saving images to add to earlystaffordshirefigures.com, where I record enamel-painted figures that I have learned of since publishing Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840. It also shows the very many figures decorated in other modes that were not included in those books. I probably add at least 300  images each year, and the task keeps me sharp! I am blown away by some of the unusual things that pop up. Recently, I came across the unrecorded Sherratt figures of a Turk on the left. Hitherto, the little Turk on the right has been the only recorded Sherratt Turk.

Clearly both figures use some common mold parts, but what prompted Sherratt to create two versions of a figure that, in relation to all else made then, was quite insignificant? We will never know.

I recently discovered the 8-inch lady below in the Museum of Denmark, of all places, and, of course, added her to earlystaffordshirefigures.com. I suspect she is English, although her base is atypical. I am not sure if she once was mounted on a larger base, but I live in hope of finding another that will solve this mystery.

Do you know what differentiates a Kashmir goat from a common-or-garden goat? It's the horns! Kashmir goats have dramatically long curly horns. A Staffordshire version came to auction recently. The bocage appeared too restored for my taste, but, nonetheless, I loaded it onto earlystaffordshirefigures.com. I have only seen one other Kashmir goat, a charming example with a quite different base and bocage, below, which too is on my site.

But I get distracted and ramble, as always happens when I work on earlystaffordshirefigures.com. One figure or one train of thought leads to another. The sheer number of Staffordshire figures is mind-blowing, and tracking them keeps my neural networks in overdrive! The brain is a strange thing. I am face-blind (embarrassing in social situations) but I seldom forget a figure.

​When I prepared Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, the elegant pair below in the Brighton and Hove Museums grabbed my heart. Unforgettable! I didn't know how to categorize them by subject, so they had to endure the ignominy of being placed in the chapter titled "Miscellaneous Subjects"  towards the end of the book.

The figures are around nine inches tall. Both have lost their bases, and she has lost a hand. Despite this, I would happily give this handsome couple space on my shelves. The closest I have come is the single figure below lumped into a mixed lot at auction recently. Alas, she has had a hard life, but she will make a spendid addition to an interesting collection.

I suspect--but can't prove--that Leeds Pottery may have made these figures. The bocage is formed in the manner of Leeds bocages. Add to that, the lady, to my mind, somewhat resembles the figure below, which is impressed with the Leeds Pottery mark.

Oh, thievery, oh, calamity. Is that a weird title for a discussion on early Staffordshire figures? Read on, and all will, sadly, become apparent

Recently, a collector friend emailed me a picture of the two figures above that he was interested in buying. Both are decorated under the glaze in a typical Pratt palette. The female is titled SPORTSMANS WIFE, and the male HELENDER BOY. What, my friend asked, might a Helender Boy be? My friend is usually a step ahead of me in tracking down obscure sources, and for the next few hours we both ransacked material of the period in our determination to find out who this little fella was. And then, by luck, the  penny dropped and I realized that our Helender Boy was meant to be a Highlander Boy! We well know that spelling was not the potters' strong point, and this is just another instance of that. To seal the argument, the same little figure occurs decorated in enamels, and here his Scottish garb is quite obvious.

My friend has one of the most interesting collections I know of, so I was pleased when he acquired the Helender Boy and Sportsmans Wife , along with a pair of sweet bocage figures, similarly decorated under the glaze.

As I had not recorded these figures before, I was relieved to see them go to a deserving and appreciative home. And then disaster struck. A few days later, I received an email from him The subject line, you may have guessed, was "Oh, thievery, oh calamity." The figures had been stolen on arrival at a London address.

I suspect that the thief was disappointed that his/her haul didn't contain something with quick street value, and I shudder to think that he/she may have tossed them because, small as they are, they are special. If you come across them, please let me know, and I will do the necessary to reunite them with their rightful owner.

On my watch, a handful of other items have been stolen. Notably, the two figures below, a stirrup cup and a unique equestrian figure, were stolen in transit to the US about ten years ago. Sadly, the latter too is the only one of its kind, and both have been lost forever.

And then there is the story of an armorial vase impressed with the Walton mark that was stolen. If complete, it would have looked like the beauty below, but in this instance both the lion and the unicorn had been lost. This did not stop an unscrupulous dealer selling what was left of the object to American collectors several decades ago--back in those days when images in books were few and far between, some in the trade got away with anything.  ​

I never fail to look at one of these Walton vases without wondering whether they were indeed vases. The opening is small for  spills, and much too small for flowers. Did they originally have a stopper of sorts that has been lost over time? To my eye, the top seems unfinished in its present form. After all, the coat of arms of that period had a lion atop. ​

I don't know if I will live long enought to encounter a Walton spill vase with a stopper, but, in my mind, these "vases" were containers, and a stopper was part of the deal.

The year 2023 was a so-so collecting year, with fewer and fewer pieces of early Staffordshire coming on the market. But it went out with a bang for me, thanks to this unrecorded felid that strolled into Bonhams, London, looking for a new victim, and I was happy to become its  prey.

The figure depicts the death of "a young boy of about 11 years of age," as told in newspaper reports of 1834 relating the escape of a lion and tiger from Wombwell's menagerie. I unearthed the gory story, which is covered in all my books, after purchasing the figure below almost twenty years ago.

 As you see, this time the tiger mauls a mother and child, presumably the "mother with a child in her arms" described in the press. Importantly, the seemingly odd title, MENAGERIE, pointed my search in the right direction. Today, the internet would make that search relatively easy, but back then I had to travel to the British Library Newspaper Archive in Colingdale  and painstakingly scan through microfilm of newspapers of the period. Pinpointing the story that inspired figure groups on this theme made it worthwhile, and I admit to arrogance in thinking I own this story. Learning later that it had been fake news has not diminished my pleasure one iota. 
​
​Sherratt made these two figure groups  in around 1834, and he made a few others on the same theme. I guess these models had a short life because the public soon learned that the event had not happened. The few that survive today are all somewhat different, and I have tracked them through the years. Again, they are all illustrated in my various works. Significantly, they are among the very few figures that can be dated with accuracy. 

Not so long ago I spied these two soldiers at an upcoming auction in the UK. Who doesn’t like a bargain? Of course, we all do, and when it comes to buying Staffordshire pottery figures a bargain seems particularly sweet. For that reason buying at auction is tempting. After all, traditionally auctions have been dealers’ prime wholesale sources. But auctions are fraught with risks, and once the hammer goes down there is no going back. For better or worse, the buyer is the new owner, even if the description and condition report prove to have been totally misleading. Of course, my heart skipped a beat at first glance, but  slowly common sense prevailed as I thought of the pitfalls.

In our haste to get an auction bargain, we too often forget the value a knowledgable dealer adds. He or she is essentially a curator, who guides us to desirable objects. Add to that the dealer puts his money at risk. He bets his wallet and his reputation on every auction purchase. His neck, rather than yours or mine, is on the block. When he gets burned at auction (and trust me, the smartest  is caught on more than one occasion), he won’t attempt to sell his mistake. Instead, he sends it to another auction. Dealers send their mistakes to auction, so next time an auction “bargain” beckons, beware! 

My video portraying all known figure models of early pugilists is now on YouTube. These amazing men, the very first modern-day sports stars, have always fascinated me. I share their enthralling story and my admiration of figures of them in this video. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/qIRo6g-ZTDk

Three or so years ago, I made four YouTube videos on various aspects of Staffordshire pottery. The process was torturous, frustrating, and technically challenging, and I swore I would not go down that road again. In subsequent years, I have received so many encouraging emails, so this summer I escaped Dallas's triple-digit temperatures by hunkering down in my office and doing it again!

My latest video showcases the charming figures that depict courtship, marriage, and all aspects of family life in the 1780-1840 period. You can watch it on YouTube  by clicking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680AoPGPKsM. You can also access this link on the Videos menu at the top of this page. 

My PDF booklet illustrating all the marked Neale & Co. and Wilson figure models is available as a free download on the Books tab at the top of this page or by clicking here.

Neale figures are eye candy. They are, to my mind, the finest the Potteries produced, so enjoy! Please let me know of any corrections or additions. 

My special thanks to collectors Bob Carde and Malcolm Trundley for their observations.

​These stunning figures portray Ceres (right) and Cybele (left). Painted with soft early enamels of the circa 1790 period, “The Girls,” as I have dubbed them, are simply breathtaking. What could be prettier?

The Girls have spent most, if not all, of the last hundred years glued to crude wooden bases. Metal fittings attached to the bases supported light bulbs and shades. Yes, someone turned these beauties into lamps! Liberated at last, they found their way to me through Damon Revans-Turner at RTS Antiques.

The inspiration for these figures is a pair of Wedgwood blue and white jasper candlesticks. Eliza Meteyard, Wedgwood’s biographer, says of them, “Articles of this character and quality were always costly, namely £5 5sh.” That was a lot of money in those days, so Staffordshire potters took up the gauntlet and made much prettier versions, and, I would guess, at a more affordable price.

One way to keep cost down would have been to decorate the figures with underglaze colors, and indeed, most of the few that I  have recorded have been colored in that way. This again places them in the 1790s, when enameling, although gaining ground by leaps and bounds, was a relatively new and more costly process. 

The pair below is on bases like the pair I feature, but, again, the colors are underglaze. 

When I unboxed The Girls, their alluring beauty exceeded my expectations. Those serene expressions and Cybele’s goofy lion charmed me. At 13.8 inches, these statuesque ladies are far from petite, but they aren’t at all clunky, and I shall enjoy finding them a deserving resting place. 

So why would Ceres and Cybele be paired? Did you know that the Romans considered both goddesses to be Earth Mothers associated with fertility? On the other hand, their devotees were divided. Rome had two hereditary classes of citizens: patricians, the elite, wealthy landowners, and plebeians (plebs), the commoners. One adopted Ceres as Magna Mater (Great Mother), and the other chose Cybele.
 
Ceres, based on the Greek goddesses Demeter, was first established in Southern Italy, but Rome imported her in the third century BCE. As the divine embodiment of agriculture, she quickly became the patron goddess of the plebs who were central to Roman economy. And her association with fertility also made her the guardian of marriage. Her name was synonymous with wheat, and even today she is in modern symbols linked to organizations associated with agriculture.

Cybele, originally a Phrygian earth mother, was portrayed in the ancient world wearing a turreted or mural crown (symbolizing her status as a guarding deity) and riding a chariot drawn by lions. Later, the Greeks adopted her, but shortly after Ceres arrived in Rome, patrician Romans decided they needed something more. Patricians had a fertility problem (caused by rampant lead poisoning) that was imperiling their elite blood lines, and none of the existing goddesses was helping. Believing that corn was first created in Phrygia, and associating Cybele with corn, fertility, and agricultural bounty, they established her as their very own Magna Mater. In record time, the harvest was abundant and the second Punic War was over!
 
Roman mythographers, knowing which side their bread was buttered, established Cybele as the ancestral goddess of the Roman people, and leading patrician families claimed to be her descendants.  Her association with agricultural fertility and the protection of cities made her acceptable despite the frenzied, and sometimes-bloody activities associated with her cult, and she became a favorite for patrician women with fertility issues.
 
Today, the  divisions in our society run deep. Republican or Democrat? Labour or Conservative? Step back over two thousand years ago, it was Ceres or Cybele, and your blood line, rather than your convictions, determined your choice.    

The Girls traveled to America swaddled in layers of wrap within a very large box. Tucked in with them was yet another treasure, just 4 inches tall, at the other end of the size spectrum. About five years ago, Damon Revans-Turner visited our collection, and, when he subsequently acquired a small clown, he recalled that we have its companion, a sweet little man holding a vegetable of sorts. The two make a perfect pair, and, as the only other clown I know of is “jailed” in a museum storage room,  I am thrilled to have found this one. Could you wish for a more perfect pair?

I am working my way through the makers of Staffordshire pottery figures of the pre-1840 period, and my photo index of John Walton's work is complete. The figures are gorgeous, so I hope you enjoy leafing through it. A free download is available on the Books tab at the top of this page. As always, comments and corrections are welcome.

I am a sucker for the carefully rendered, creamy enamel colors found on early Staffordshire figures of the 1780-1800 period. The Neale factory takes the prize for excellence, but the potter Ralph Wood (active 1782-1795) is a close runner-up, and I enjoy our family’s small collection of his enamel-painted figures. I especially like the group below. Today it is interpreted as being allegorical of married life, and collectors know it as Liberty and Matrimony--the cage symbolizes the restraints of marriage, and the bird represents freedom. But, as we shall see shortly, in his day Ralph Wood simply called this group Bird Catchers.

Our group is a little unusual in that the body is a porcelain-pottery hybrid. Wood, who was the founding father of the English pottery industry, experimented with a variety of bodies. Although he favoured pottery, it is not unusual to find one of his models made in some other ceramic material. ​

And he made them decorated in colored glazes.

Each to his own, but for me those pretty enamel colors win any day.

As I type this post, I am, as always, aware that my vast photo archive makes it seem that such figure groups can be found with ease. Far from it. But don't let that stop you looking, and don't hesitate to buy a beautiful single--in my opinion, that's far better than a poor pair. Many examples have lost their bocages over the years yet still retain their beauty, but avoid anything with an extensively restored bocage.

​Also, remember that nasty reproductions of the shepherds group can be found easily. Made in Asia in recent years, they are crude, garish object, and some even have "WOOD" scratched beneath. The deliberate dirty crazing betrays them for what they are. 

Yet another few words of advice: if you see other early figure groups of this form, do not assume Ralph Wood made them. After Wood's death, his molds passed to others. In particular, the Dudson factory made figure groups from these molds in the early 1800s. They are charming, but Ralph Wood's are the best.

If you want to know more about Ralph Wood’s work, please refer to my PDF on that subject, accessed by clicking here.