December, 191 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



43. 



Old Staffordshire cottage figures 



While Wood and Wedgewood were leaders, they were not 

 the only potters who took up the craft of cottage figures. 

 We find these pieces occasionally in Bow, Derby, Chelsea 

 and Plymouth wares, and also in porcelain. 



There was no more exquisite work done than at the pot- 

 teries at Chelsea between 1750 and 1769. The pieces 

 were known in England as "Bosky" backgrounds on ac- 

 count of the flowery background, which was most exqui- 

 sitely done and was a pecu- 

 liarity of this manufacture. 

 The work did not last long, 

 however, for the reason that 

 the Chelsea potteries were 

 closed in 1784, when the 

 business was taken over at 

 Derby. As late as 1838 

 Herbert Minton engaged a 

 man named Steele, a painter 

 by trade, who had worked in 

 the Royal Derby Pottery, to 

 enter his employ and to as- 

 sist him in making china fig- 

 ure imitations of Sevres. 

 Wonderfully fine work was 

 done during this period, and 

 examples of it are not rare. 



The manufacture of Pa- 

 rian ware started in 1845. 

 During its reign many 



Rockingham, Jackfield and Staffordshire ware 



charming groups, busts and statuettes were designed, each 

 one of them being characterized by careful modeling and 

 excellent finish. Copeland produced some fine specimens 

 of this w r ork, many of his pieces being copies in miniature 

 of the works of the mid-Victorian sculptors. 



The Victorian era brought in its wake many famous 

 potters, each one of whom turned out good pieces. In these 



Cottage figures by Enoch C. Wood 



wares were such well-known figures, such as that of "Queen 

 Victoria," of "John Brown" in Highland costume, and 

 many other personages or characters both historic and fic- 

 titious. Few, if any, of the different potters but turned 

 their attention to cottage figures. We even find them in 

 Lowestoft showing the peculiar shade of red that always 

 characterized the work of this pottery. 



In the Glaisher Collection, marked "Lakin and Poole," 



is an interesting group that 

 depicts the assassination of 

 Marat by Charlotte Corday 

 at Caen, in 1793. Charlotte 

 Corday is depicted holding 

 in her hand the knife with 

 which she has just stabbed 

 her victim. Lying on the 

 ground at her feet is Marat, 

 bright, orange-colored drops 

 of blood trickling from the 

 wound as shown on his waist- 

 coat. 



A very curious piece of 

 this craft is found in the 

 Bethnal Green Museum, 

 London. It represents a 

 nude Bacchus seated astride 

 a cask holding in his hand a 

 cornucopia, a dolphin shap- 

 ing the snout. The handle 

 is a monkey resting on the shoulders of the god. On the 

 reverse side of the jug is an infant Satyr holding panpipes. 

 While the latter-day figures are interesting, they are not 

 surrounded with the romance of the earlier bits, more espe- 

 cially such as surrounds the figures which were molded 

 long before any Staffordshire work came into existence. 

 (Continued on page 441 ) 



The molds evolved by potters for cottage figures produced an endless variety of subjects 



