For me, the "hunt" of collecting early Staffordshire figures is much more fun than the actual "find" or purchase---and the excitement of learning along the way keeps me going! I cringe inwardly when I am described as an "expert" because I know there is still so much I have yet to learn. Recently, two discoveries reminded me yet again of just how much still awaits discovery!
The first is this pearlware christening group, newly added to John Howard's dazzling stock.
The first is this pearlware christening group, newly added to John Howard's dazzling stock.
Courtesy John Howard.
I did a double-take when this unusual group popped onto my monitor because hitherto every christening group recorded has been attributable to "Sherratt." The "Sherratt" examples I show below are typical. As you see, the figures on "Sherratt" christening groups are always the same, but the groups vary in that one or other of the "Sherratt" bocages and bases are used.
Courtesy Roger Deville
Courtesy Roger Deville
On the other hand, the small figures on John's group are quite different from those on "Sherratt" groups. Note the addition of a young child to the family scene.
Courtesy John Howard
Surely more of these pearlware christening groups must have been made? What happened to them? Alas, another question I can't answer.
Another lesson I recently learned came courtesy of a very knowledgeable collector friend. It concerned this figure in the Hunt Collection, Dallas, TX.
Another lesson I recently learned came courtesy of a very knowledgeable collector friend. It concerned this figure in the Hunt Collection, Dallas, TX.
Courtesy William Herbert and Nancy Hunt.
The figure was sold to Nancy Hunt as a madonna, but I was not convinced, so I placed the figure among the Miscellaneous in Holding the Past, my book cataloging the Hunt Collection. My friend points out that the figure is Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy. Figures of Guanyin were exported to the west from the mid-1600s. The figure below is just one of many made in Asia--and clearly one or other inspired copying in the Staffordshire potteries.
Guanyin, blanc de Chine porcelain, early eighteenth century. Courtesy the Princessehof Ceramics Museum.
Why would Staffordshire potters make figures of Guanyin? Beats me! But this is not the only Asian religious figure that the potters made. Buddha too was made in the Potteries (Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, Vol. 2 for an example.) But the existence of such figures substantiates my theory that early Staffordshire figures were made for a more upscale market. All rather puzzling at times, but then piecing together the story is what collecting is all about.
