Figure group
Chelsea Porcelain Factory
Category
Ceramics
Date
1755 - 1757
Materials
Soft paste porcelain
Measurements
180 x 130 x 88 mm
Place of origin
Chelsea
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 205094
Summary
Figure group, soft paste porcelain, Dutch or Tyrolean (Austrian) dancers, circular base with rococo moulding, each dancer positioned standing on one leg, the other kicked out behind them, the man wearing pale purple breeches, white waistcoat with yellow belt and purple shirt with black hat and face mask, the woman with a yellow dress with blue bodice, her hair in two long braids, modelled by Joseph Willems, Chelsea Porcelain Factory, ca 1755; decorated in naturalistic overglaze enamels, with some applied flowers to the base and to the women's garments.
Full description
This dynamic figure group shows a couple holding each other as they dance, kicking up their back legs. It is based on a figure group first created by Johann Friedrich Eberlein for the Meissen porcelain manufactory in 1735. The model was later reworked by Johann Joachim Kaendler, who added the man’s 'domino' or carnival mask. The figure was described in his 1753 list of works as ‘Harlequin dancing the mazurka (a Polish dance) with a girl.' The figure was not only copied at Chelsea, but at the porcelain workshops at Bow and Derby, as well as in Chinese export porcelain. It is probably the one described as ‘a Dutchman and his wife dancing’ or ‘a man and woman dancing’ when the contents of Chelsea's warehouse were sold in 1755-6. The proprietor of Chelsea, Nicholas Sprimont and its financer, Sir Everard Fawkener, borrowed a collection of Meissen porcelain (including figures) from Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams, so they could produce copies. Hanbury-Williams was working as a British envoy to the court of Saxony in Dresden, where Meissen was based, and both purchased porcelain and received it as gifts. The figures were stored at Holland House, the Kensington home of Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland. A letter to Fox from Hanbury-Williams in 1751 makes his intention clear: 'I have told Sir Everard, that, if he will go to your house, you will permitt him, and anyone He brings with him, to see my China, and to take away such pieces as they may have a mind to copy.’
Provenance
Part of the Bambridge Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Mrs Elsie Bambridge (1896-1976)
Marks and inscriptions
Lower body: [red anchor mark] (hand painted, red enamel, overglaze)
Makers and roles
Chelsea Porcelain Factory, manufacturer
References
Boulay 2002: Anthony du Boulay, 'English Ceramics in National Trust Houses' in 'English Ceramic Circle Transactions', Vol. 18, Part 1, 2002., fig. 16, p. 276 Chilton 2001: Meredith Chilton Harlequin Unmasked: The Commedia dell’Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, London 2001, plate 220 - possible print source Adams, 2001: Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain, British Museum Press, fig. 9.3 Manners, 2007: Errol Manners, 'Some Continental Influences on English Porcelain', Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle, 2007, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 429-470.