I am intrigued by arbor groups. The best known model is almost certainly the New Marriage Act group, such as you see below.
Sadly, the New Marriage Act arbor group is well known for all the wrong reasons. Reproductions abound on eBay and even at auction houses that should know better. The lovely example above was formerly in the stock of Roger de Ville. Nothing of quality is common any longer, and genuine New Marriage Act groups are thin on the ground.
Even thinner on the ground are Dame Schools, such as the one below formerly in the stock of Philip Carrol. Dame schools really are few and far between. In the last decade, I can recall only two coming to market at the retail level. Dame schools were the child care centers of their day. Here children were taught reading and domestic skills in the home of an elderly dame or gentleman. A glimpse of the past, is this not?
Even thinner on the ground are Dame Schools, such as the one below formerly in the stock of Philip Carrol. Dame schools really are few and far between. In the last decade, I can recall only two coming to market at the retail level. Dame schools were the child care centers of their day. Here children were taught reading and domestic skills in the home of an elderly dame or gentleman. A glimpse of the past, is this not?
Doctor Syntax playing cards occurs as a bocage group and within an arbor. Both forms are quite difficult to procure--and I wouldn't consider an example with a restored head on one or other of the figures worth procuring. To jog your memory, Doctor Syntax was a literary character, a peripatetic cleric whose amusing adventures were very popular with adults and children alike circa 1820. Consider him the Harry Potter of his day.
Below is a second Doctor Syntax arbor group. It is in the Brighton and Hove Museums. Note that the figures are from different molds to those in the previous Syntax arbor group, and the arbor now has a black and white design on the back, rather than the grapevine previously seen. I have long suspected that at least two pot banks made arbor groups, and the existence of these two Syntax arbor groups confirms that. You also find New Marriage Act arbors with a similar black and white design on the back wall of the arbor.
This delicious performing animal troupe is one of only two recorded examples within an arbor--although the same figures occur grouped with a bocage.
And the same can be said for these musicians in an arbor. Again, I know of only two examples in an arbor, but these musicians are found on trumpet spill vases.
As for the arbor group below, I know of only this example in this old image and would love to hear from you if you know where the real thing is.
You see the same figures on the trumpet spill vase below.
Because the trumpet spill vase is attributed to the Patriotic Group pot bank (see Vol. 1 of my Nov. 2013 publication for full details), I suspect the arbor group also originated from that pot bank, The same can be said for more than one of the other arbor groups, but I wouldn't want to bet my life on it. Hopefully, time will help me piece together the links. There is so much we don't know yet, and who knows what still is out there, just waiting to be discovered?
