This month marks the fourteenth anniversary of this site. It started on a whim, and its longevity shocks me. As I look back at my earlier scribblings, I am amazed at how much I have learned since writing them, but I don't have the time (or patience) for updates, so I just keep plodding ahead. I am even more amazed at the endless array of figures that keep whetting my interest. The range that the potters fashioned over a relatively short time period is truly mind boggling.
A favorite image in my virtual collection depicts this gorgeous pair of figures of a harvester and his lady, made by the Leeds Pottery circa 1790. Leeds figures are readily recognizable--I have recently written on that topic--and usually no mark is needed for an attribution.
A favorite image in my virtual collection depicts this gorgeous pair of figures of a harvester and his lady, made by the Leeds Pottery circa 1790. Leeds figures are readily recognizable--I have recently written on that topic--and usually no mark is needed for an attribution.
Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Leeds made the stylistically similar pair of a falconer and his lady shown below. While the lady is from the same molds as the harvester lady, the man differs markedly from the male harvester.
 (c) Donald Towner, English Cream-coloured Earthenware. |  (c) Donald Towner, English Cream-coloured Earthenware. |
I happen to own an example of the falconer's lady, shown below. Notice that, unlike the havester's lady, she does not hold a scythe, the object in her right hand is something other than wheat, and there is no wheat at her feet.
Recently, a great collector with an eagle eye, sent me the image below. The figures depict Ceres and Apollo, and those names are clearly impressed beneath each. They are instantly identifiable as having been made by James Neale or his one-time partner David Wilson, circa 1790. The figures probably will not, at first glance, strike you as unusual, but they are.
Courtesy Malcolm Trundley.
Below are the more usual rendition of these lovely figures. Can you spot the differences?
On the first version, Apollo's garb is draped differently, and Ceres has acquired an additional cornucopia at her feet. I have to ask myself WHY two versions of these figures? The first version is also recorded in black basalt, but I have not otherwise noticed a pearlware pair.
Why there were so many design modifications I do not know. Notice this pair of companion groups from the pot bank that operated in Tunstall.
Why there were so many design modifications I do not know. Notice this pair of companion groups from the pot bank that operated in Tunstall.
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Very nice, and, you may think, more than enough for a relatively small pot bank that operated over a short period of time. Why then did that same pot bank produce the modification below? And surely that too has a companion figure group, or were these three groups intended as a trio? With luck, time will tell.
The prize for variations may go to Ralph Wood, the founding father of English pottery figure making. When he set up as an independent potter in 1782, he started making shepherds and shepherdesses, as his early invoices testify. We have yet to record marked examples, and, unlike figures Wood made slightly later, none of them is impressed with a model number. You might think that one shepherd-shepherdess pair would suffice, but several pairs decorated in colored glazes are ALL said to be his.
While I question all the attributions, I concede that Ralph Wood probably made more than one pair. I think the first pair below is almost certainly his handiwork, and the second is very likely to be his.
While I question all the attributions, I concede that Ralph Wood probably made more than one pair. I think the first pair below is almost certainly his handiwork, and the second is very likely to be his.
Courtesy John Howard.
Courtesy the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
However, the two pairs below leave me unconvinced. I really doubt Ralph Wood made either, but collector and dealers will probably always continue to attribute them (and just about anything else decorated in colored glazes) to Ralph Wood simply because it cannot be disproved--and the Ralph Wood cachet adds value!
Courtesy the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
 Courtesy the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. |  Courtesy the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. |
The shepherds and shepherdess above are all in the nine-inch size range, but there is one smaller shepherdess that I confidently can attribute to Ralph Wood. The lady below is about six inches tall, and it is generally accepted that she is a shepherdess and a metal crook would have been in her raised hand. I am quite certain Ralph Wood made her because the modeling is so very typical of that found on other figures with Ralph Wood's mark and/or mold number.
Courtesy Skinner, Inc.
As extra confirmation of the attribution, Ralph Wood made the same figure decorated in enamel colors, as below. Features of the enamel decoration are helpful in confirming the attribution--in particular the script used for titling and the line that bands three lines of the base only. Yes, I know the figure is titled Hay Maker, but I suspect that is a mistake. But, until another titled example turns up, we can't be certain.
Courtesy Woolley & Wallis Auctions.
By nature, I want to "drill to the bottom" on anything I explore, leaving no stone unturned. But with Staffordshire figures, there is no bottom! And that's why learning about them is an endlessly stimulating occupation.
