Early Staffordshire pearlware and creamware pottery figures

John Dale Chariot

2/19/2013

This to-die-for pearlware chariot is currently for sale at Seidenberg Antiques, NY.
I admit to having seen it some years ago, and it has been seared onto my brain ever since. Most earthenware chariots are not very appealing, so let's look at what makes this one different.

First, this chariot measures about 11 inches by 11 inches, so it is larger than others.
Second, it is much, much, much prettier. Just look at the vibrant enamel colors, the modeling, those beautiful tigers. Could it get any better?
Third, it is very much rarer--perhaps unique. In fact, I know of no other example of this model.
Fourth, the condition is excellent, with only minor restoration.
Fifth, the chariot can be attributed to John Dale with confidence.

This chariot is, to my mind, rarer and more important than a menagerie and it is priced accordingly. The lady seated so regally within is probably Cybele or one or other of the classical female deities. I have tracked down about half-a-dozen prints applied to glass from this same period, all showing a goddess within a chariot pulled by felines. Below, we have Flora and Ceres.

John Dale was active in Burslem by 1818 and he potted till 1838. A small range of figures marked I. DALE, BURSLEM is documented. These figures exhibit features, some of which are only found on Dale's work. The attribution game is a bit like doing a jigsaw: much piecing-together of snippets of information completes the picture. In this case, the clues to a Dale attribution are:

1. The base. Bases of this form are only found on figure groups that link to Dale. Sometimes the bases are adorned with sprigs and flowers that are exclusive to Dale.

2. The bocage. Dale used three bocage frond forms. None of these is exclusive to Dale, but this bocage is consistent with a Dale attribution.

3. The bocage flowers. These flowers have twelve petals that alternate in a pattern of six short and six long. Flowers of this exact form are found only on Dale figures and on marked Tittensor figures. (FYI: Only three enamel-painted Tittensor figures with bocages are documented, and all three have bocage flowers of this same type. The bocages and flowers on enamel-painted Tittensor figures are quite different from those on underglaze painted Tittensor figures. Seems Tittensor changed his style in more ways than one over the years.)

4. The tigers. Dale--and only Dale-- made tigers from the same molds as the two fierce felines pulling this chariot. Those tigers are recorded with bocages, bases, and bocage flowers that link to Dale. Here, for your delight, is such a tiger, formerly in the stock of John Howard.

Note that the bocage on the tiger is like that on the chariot. The attribution game always comes around in circles as figures tie in to each other.

I would love to own this chariot, but I can't afford it. Last week we were in the rain forest. A large black spider monkey leaped into our skiff and perched on my husband's knee. As he was wondering what to do about it, I noted a stream flowing down his jeans' leg, on the outside of his calf. Yes, the monkey had answered nature's call! Our guide assured us that this experience would bring luck. So what to do with our new-found 'luck'? I will encourage my husband to buy a lottery ticket this week, and if the luck thing works, I will NOT buy a new car....but a chariot sounds good. Don't hold your breath!

PS: Next week I am away working, so no blog entry till the week after.

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Eros and Anteros

2/12/2013

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This figure group of two tussling cherubs is over 16 inches tall and it has an impressive footprint. It portrays Cupid, known as Eros to the Greeks, struggling with Anteros, his brother. In Ancient and Renaissance art, the struggle between Eros and Anteros symbolizes reciprocal love. Apparently, the brothers' tussle should be interpreted as suggesting that love requires reciprocal feeling to grow. This particular example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and it is impressed WEDGWOOD & CO, the mark of Ralph Wedgwood, so we can date it with relative precision.

Ralph Wedgwood was active from 1788 to 1800, so this is an early figure. Ralph Wedgwood's marked figures are impressed “WEDGWOOD” (sometimes with a period afterwards, sometimes not) in small letters. Less commonly, Ralph Wedgwood used the impressed mark “WEDGWOOD & CO”. The latter mark is believed to date from the period of his Knottingley partnership of 1798–99, but as both Ralph Wedgwood’s operating partnerships were known as “Wedgwood & Co”, possibly figures made by both partnerships were marked in this way.

Below is another example of the same subject, this time impressed WEDGWOOD. My thanks to the collector who shared this photo. Note that here the garland is different, and it is placed to partially conceal nudity. I have recorded several of these large Eros and Anteros figure groups in my to-be-published book, and they vary in the form of the base and the placement of foliage etc. Some are unmarked, and I suspect Enoch Wood/Wood & Caldwell made at least one of them--but Ralph Wedgwood was a plagiarist extraordinaire, and it would not be surprising to learn that he had copied someone else's model.

The subject of Eros and Anteros tussling was very popular in the neoclassical period, and bronzes and marbles by an array of artists portray the theme. A marble by P.P Thomire has long been believed to be the design source of the earthenware model, but the marble below is by Francois-Joseph Le Clercq, dated 1780, and it may be earlier. It is now in the Philbrook Museum of Art.