Antique Staffordshire pottery figures sometimes belong on walls--and when they are formed as plaques, that certainly is the case. The pair of pearlware figures below sit in very high relief within plaques, and they are stunning. They stare out from within very deep gilded frames, and are as realistic as can be.
The couple in question are the ill-fated Princess Charlotte and her husband, Prince Leopold, shown above in a colored print of 1816. They married in that year, and Charlotte died in childbirth a year later. The story is a well-known one that I will not belabor here. In brief, although King George III and his queen had dutifully produced fifteen children, Charlotte was their only legitimate grandchild. On her death the nation plunged into deep morning. “It really was as if every household throughout Great Britain had lost a favourite child,” wrote the politician Henry Brougham. With Charlotte’s death, it was as if the British nation had lost its future.
This pair of plaques was made around 1816, at the time of Charlotte's marriage. Charlotte is identifiable by her trademark hairstyle--those flowers in her hair. The plaques were bought from John Howard about ten years ago, and they are of the high quality associated with John's fabulous stock. Prince Leopold is not otherwise captured in figural form in the pre-Victorian era.
Charlotte's death inspired a slew of commemorative ceramics--everything right down to cups and saucers mourn her passing. I have always thought this jug of Princess Charlotte to be rather a lovely remembrance. Her features here have the distinctly Hanoverian heaviness they had in real life. I hate to burst your bubble, but she was a particularly ungainly lass...not at all a fairy tale princess.
This pair of plaques was made around 1816, at the time of Charlotte's marriage. Charlotte is identifiable by her trademark hairstyle--those flowers in her hair. The plaques were bought from John Howard about ten years ago, and they are of the high quality associated with John's fabulous stock. Prince Leopold is not otherwise captured in figural form in the pre-Victorian era.
Charlotte's death inspired a slew of commemorative ceramics--everything right down to cups and saucers mourn her passing. I have always thought this jug of Princess Charlotte to be rather a lovely remembrance. Her features here have the distinctly Hanoverian heaviness they had in real life. I hate to burst your bubble, but she was a particularly ungainly lass...not at all a fairy tale princess.
This jug was copied in the early twentieth century, so beware of later versions. You may find one quite reasonably from a seller who knows not what he is selling. I have seen the jug described as anything from a Bacchnalian jug to Queen Caroline!
Also portraying the Princess in a regal role is this plaque, with the words “THE LATE AND MUCH LAMENTED Princess Charlotte of Saxe Cobourg Who departed this life Novemberr 6.th 1817” on it. A lovely remembrance is it not? I have to wonder what will be saved to note Princess Diana's passing. A cheap coffee cup? A tee shirt? How much is our generation creating that is worthy of saving???
Also portraying the Princess in a regal role is this plaque, with the words “THE LATE AND MUCH LAMENTED Princess Charlotte of Saxe Cobourg Who departed this life Novemberr 6.th 1817” on it. A lovely remembrance is it not? I have to wonder what will be saved to note Princess Diana's passing. A cheap coffee cup? A tee shirt? How much is our generation creating that is worthy of saving???
