Figurine

Title:

Autumn

Object Name:

Figurine

Object ID:

1980.047.12

Place of Origin:

Staffordshire, England

Date:

1810-1830

Description:

Figurine of "Autumn". Pearlware, earthenware. Figurine, cast pearlware, hollow with filled-in base with small central oval aperture. Standing figure represents "Autumn", wears yellow chiton or tunic, sandles (unpainted), and cape decorated with brown and mustard-colored spongework. (For similar treatment and colors, see John Hall's "Staffordshire Portrait Figures", pl. 49, p. 66.) Figure has long, flowing brown hair, brown eyes and mouth, carries wheat and sickle, and stands on a green, grassy mound which rises from a thin, square, green marbled base. Mound incised to depict leaves and grass; front of base bears title, "Autumn". Glaze tinged with blue, has cracks. Colors sloppily painted on in semi-translucent glazes.
Similar to Sunderland figures of the "Four Seasons", pictured in G. Bernard Hughes "English and Scotish Earthenware", pl. 32. According to Ivor Noel-Hume's "Pearlware: Forgotten Milestone of English Ceramic History", The Magazine Antiques (March 1969), pp. 390-391, pearlware was first put on the market by Wedgwood in 1779, and elaborate floral decoration of pearlware in polychrome was popular 1800-1820, generally with yellow, green, and orange predominanting the colors used on this figurine. According to Hughes, p. 178, this type of object was used to decorate fireplace mantles. In the late 1830's began a long vogue for flat-backed figures, p. 189.
Good-condition. Chips at bottom of base, crack at figure's right shoulder. A similar representation of "Autumn", by Sunderland, impressed with the "Dixon, Austin & Co." mark, can be seen in W. D. John and Warren Baker's "Old English Pottery", colored illustration #81.

Material:

Ceramic
Earthenware - Pearl ware

Dimensions:

H-8.5 W-3.625 D-3.625 inches

Provenance:

Part of a large collection of 18th- & 19th-century ceramics, given by their collector, Alma (Mrs. Harold G.) Duckworth (1899-2003).

Credit Line:

Gift of Alma Duckworth

People:

Duckworth, Alma (1899-2003)