Figure group
Category
Ceramics
Date
1815 - 1830
Materials
Pearlware
Measurements
198 x 255 x 116 mm
Place of origin
Staffordshire
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 205016
Summary
Figure group, pearlware, Cybele seated in a chariot pulled by two lions in harnesses, she holds a tympanum drum in her right hand, with her left hand behind the drum, a bocage to the rear of the group, mounted onto a rocky base of oval form, Staffordshire, ca 1815-30; the base decorated in brown and green mottled coloured glazes, Cybele's skirt is decorated with enamelled flowers, her bodice is turquoise and her sash is puce, the lions are coloured with yellow-orange glazes, the chariot in yellow glaze with brown enamel detailing, the bocage is of the 'pine cone' type, with the leaves in green and trunk in brown glaze.
Full description
Cybele was the Anatolian deity of the fertile earth, as well as caverns, mountains and wild beasts. She is usually depicted with a pair of lions, but variations of this figure are also known with tigers pulling her chariot.
Provenance
Part of the Bambridge Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Mrs Elsie Bambridge (1896-1976)