The pearlware figure of a Jewish peddler shown below is very rare. I shouldn't imagine that it was the most commercially popular Staffordshire figure in its time because, although interesting, it is not particularly pretty. Yes, I know: the title is mis-spelled, and the subject is far from "politically correct," but the figure nonetheless remains a fascinating peep into the past.
Courtesy Willett Collection, Brighton and Hove Museums.
As you see, the BY A VACH figure was made titled (I have noted two titled examples) and untitled (I have recorded only one of these) in enamel colors. Recently, I was surprised to notice the same figure, but in underglaze colors in a Pratt palette, coming up at auction. This is the only underglaze colored example that I have seen.
In decades past, figures were valued for their social and historical importance. For just this reason, Henry Willett more than a century ago added a BY A VACH figure, the first one shown above, to his collection, which now resides in the Brighton and Hove Museums. Other collectors in the twentieth century similarly prized figures that they could link to particular pot banks or to particular historical events or social trends. Alas, it is not so today. Only one thing counts for today's "collectors": the figure must be pretty. Eye-candy rules across the board in decorative arts. I am told it is easier to sell attractive silver plate than it is to sell silver because plate items will be better priced....and the look is all that really counts. How low we have sunk!
So, given the dense ignorance that pervades the collecting world AND that "cute" and "pretty" have become collectors' yardsticks, where does that leave the state of collecting? Sad to say, I firmly believe that if John Howard, our leading Staffordshire figure dealer, were to place a reproduction recently-made-in-Asia Wombwell's menagerie on his site, someone deeming it "cute" would buy it at a hefty price. In fact, I suspect that collectors of that sort would grab the reproduction menagerie over the Real Thing with a visible chip or two!
American collectors to a large extent drive the market for collecting early figures, and most American collectors, sadly, insist on their figures looking perfect. There is little tolerance for imperfection, little concern about the amount of restoration, just a relentless determination to fill shelves with pretty objects. I have seen several collections in the UK as well as one or two in the US where the figures have been bought without too much concern for their condition. A certain honesty pervades those collections, and I hope that the underglaze Jewish peddler, with his sedate colors and his damaged hand, finds an appreciative home with a true collector.
P.S. I apologize for the lapse in updating this blog, but there are over nine years of old entries that you can browse. In future, I will update at least once a month, always by the second Tuesday of the month.
So, given the dense ignorance that pervades the collecting world AND that "cute" and "pretty" have become collectors' yardsticks, where does that leave the state of collecting? Sad to say, I firmly believe that if John Howard, our leading Staffordshire figure dealer, were to place a reproduction recently-made-in-Asia Wombwell's menagerie on his site, someone deeming it "cute" would buy it at a hefty price. In fact, I suspect that collectors of that sort would grab the reproduction menagerie over the Real Thing with a visible chip or two!
American collectors to a large extent drive the market for collecting early figures, and most American collectors, sadly, insist on their figures looking perfect. There is little tolerance for imperfection, little concern about the amount of restoration, just a relentless determination to fill shelves with pretty objects. I have seen several collections in the UK as well as one or two in the US where the figures have been bought without too much concern for their condition. A certain honesty pervades those collections, and I hope that the underglaze Jewish peddler, with his sedate colors and his damaged hand, finds an appreciative home with a true collector.
P.S. I apologize for the lapse in updating this blog, but there are over nine years of old entries that you can browse. In future, I will update at least once a month, always by the second Tuesday of the month.
