I spend a lot of time trying to find design sources for figures. When I find one, it is a huge personal triumph. Today I got lucky. But first the figure.
This odd figure appears on page 87 of my book People, Passions, Pastimes, and Pleasures: Staffordshire Figures 1810-1835. It is titled MA BAIRN (My Child in today's dialect) and depicts a proud mother with her rather ungainly, lanky child. Odd subject, is it not? Clearly it pokes fun at the concept of maternal pride.
I took nearly every photograph in my book, with the exception of three. The photo of MA BAIRN is one of them. Ivan Mears called the figure to my attention when he knew I was seeking the unusual. He and David Boyer had sold the figure, but they did have a photograph, which they kindly allowed me to include in my book. I knew the collectors who had bought it, but one of them hated it so they sold it. The figure eventually landed up in one of Jonathan Horne's Exhibitions--he too recognized it as a rarity. From there, it made its way into a US collection and thence into a California museum. Now it languishes on a museum shelf--not necessarily on display. Nobody who looks at it really knows what it is. How I wish it had come back on the market instead.
Yay! Today, I found the source print for Ma Bairn on Grosvenor Prints' site.
I took nearly every photograph in my book, with the exception of three. The photo of MA BAIRN is one of them. Ivan Mears called the figure to my attention when he knew I was seeking the unusual. He and David Boyer had sold the figure, but they did have a photograph, which they kindly allowed me to include in my book. I knew the collectors who had bought it, but one of them hated it so they sold it. The figure eventually landed up in one of Jonathan Horne's Exhibitions--he too recognized it as a rarity. From there, it made its way into a US collection and thence into a California museum. Now it languishes on a museum shelf--not necessarily on display. Nobody who looks at it really knows what it is. How I wish it had come back on the market instead.
Yay! Today, I found the source print for Ma Bairn on Grosvenor Prints' site.
This satirical lithograph is titled MY GIRL. Its companion is titled, of course, MY BOY. Printed by C. Hullmandel, published by T. Smyth, and sold by A. Parsey of the Burlington Arcade, it is undated. Oh for a date! But in the absence of a date, the lithographs are believed to be circa 1830.
I wonder if MA BAIRN, like its design source, was made to pair with another figure. Meanwhile, there is bound to be another MA BAIRN out there, and you just never know when it--and its companion-- will turn up!
I wonder if MA BAIRN, like its design source, was made to pair with another figure. Meanwhile, there is bound to be another MA BAIRN out there, and you just never know when it--and its companion-- will turn up!
