It's just not funny the way time slips by. In a few weeks, this site will be six years old, and I simply can't believe it. The site started when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal claiming that anyone could build a website in an hour. Recalling how I had to beg and cajole my very brilliant son into building a site for People, Passions, Pastimes, and Pleasures, I thought I should acquire this 21st century life-skill....and six years down the road, here we are. At this point, there is so much stuff on the site that I can't recall or find much of it, and I suspect there is a good deal I would like to amend, but there are just not enough hours in the day.
It seems like yesterday that I wrote on vases of the form below...but it turns out that it was May 2011!
It seems like yesterday that I wrote on vases of the form below...but it turns out that it was May 2011!
Photo courtesy of Martyn Edgell
You can read the May 2011 blog article on the vases by clicking here. Two incidents bring this vase form to mind this week. First, there is this week's correspondence (below the May 2011 posting) from one of the descendants of William Turner of Lane End-----Turner actually made a marked vase of this form. Second.....well, wait a moment. Let me first add that I have seen several vases of this form over time, all quite similar. In compiling Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, I had to assign each figure to a chapter, which is easier said than done. Where to put vases such as these?? I eventually placed them in the chapter devoted to the goddess Ceres, who traditionally has a cornucopia. For better or worse, that's where the figure is.
I have come to believe that almost every Staffordshire figure has a pair/companion, but what of this vase? The vases I have seen have always been female in form. This brings me to the second incident that brought this vase to mind this week. Lo and behold, one is coming up at auction and she has a male companion.
I have come to believe that almost every Staffordshire figure has a pair/companion, but what of this vase? The vases I have seen have always been female in form. This brings me to the second incident that brought this vase to mind this week. Lo and behold, one is coming up at auction and she has a male companion.
Image from Freeman's web site.
I wish the male figure had an attribute that could help us identify him. Apollo would be ideal, because Ceres is sometimes paired with Apollo. Alas, for now his identity remains a mystery, but some day another might turn up and shed definitive light on the identity of the female figure.
