Figure
Vauxhall Porcelain Factory
Category
Ceramics
Date
1753 - 1755
Materials
soft paste porcelain
Measurements
155 x 193 x 82 mm
Place of origin
Vauxhall
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 205284
Summary
Figure group, soft-paste porcelain, standing on a simple, rectangular base with straight sides and curved ends, modelled as a cupid posed as if holding a bow and arrow, sitting on a lion's pelt, mounted onto a horse rearing onto its hind legs, a barking dog, beneath, Vauxhall Porcelain Factory, London, 1753-55; coloured sparsely in overglaze enamels, with brown to the mane, tail, cupid's hair and the dog's coat, applied flowers to the base with green, pink and red enamels, yellow to the edge of the lion's pelt.
Full description
This figure group of Cupid mounted on a horse was made by the Vauxhall Porcelain Factory around 1755. It was made as a pair, with its companion figure facing in the opposite direction. The figure group is based on a much earlier bronze sculpture by the Italian artist Francesco Fanelli, thought to have been modelled in London in the late 1630s. There are about eight different versions of the bronze known, but only three examples in porcelain - this example at Wimpole, which was collected by Elsie and George Bambridge, with others at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. One example of its pair is in the British Museum. The practice of replicating and adaptation of bronze or marble sculpture in pottery and porcelain was widespread during the 18th and 19th centuries, and this is a wonderful example. Like its bronze source, the Wimpole figure (and its original pair) would have been used as an ornament, perhaps on a mantelpiece or in a cabinet. The Wimpole figure is very similar to the Fanelli originals and was presumably modelled directly after a bronze, as it wasn’t replicated in print. It has an additional tree stump under the horse to stop it collapsing in the kiln, as well as the applied flowers, which are very much an eighteenth century porcelain flourish and are not on the bronzes. An example of this model was sold in 1941 at Sotheby’s from the residual collection of collector Arthur Hurst, following his bequests to the British Museum and V&A. Given the rarity of the figure this must be the one acquired by the Bambridges. The pendant model to the figure, now at the British Museum, was one of the pieces selected by curators for the Hurst bequest, meaning the example at the British Museum is its historic, potentially original, pair. The model was historically attributed to the Longton Hall factory in Staffordshire, based on its muted colour palette.
Provenance
Part of the Bambridge Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Mrs Elsie Bambridge (1896-1976)
Makers and roles
Vauxhall Porcelain Factory, manufacturer Francesco Fanelli (b.1577), sculptor
References
Massey 2014: Roger Massey, 2014, 'Vauxhall porcelain figures', Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle, Vol. 25 (2014), pp. 1-21, pp. 11-12, fig. 24 Poole 1986: Julia Poole, Plagiarism Personified? European Pottery and Porcelain Figures, exh.cat, venue: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 30-31, plate 17, D6 Lane, 1961: Arthur Lane, English Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century, 1961, pp. 38,117, pl. 81B (from V&A collection) Watney, 1957: Bernard Watney, Longton Hall Porcelain, 1957, fig. 31B (from British Museum collection)