Sleeping Children (after Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA)
Minton's Ltd (Minton and Co.)
Category
Ceramics
Date
1862 - 1872
Materials
Parian porcelain
Measurements
233 mm (W)
Place of origin
Stoke-on-Trent
Order this imageCollection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 285161
Summary
Figure group, Parian porcelain, Sleeping Children, naturalistically modelled figure of two girls asleep on a bed, their heads on a tasselled pillow, Minton, & Co, Stoke on Trent, ca 1862-72; after Sir Francis Chantrey's monument to the children of the Reverend W. Robinson and Ellen-Jane Robinson in Lichfield Cathedral.
Full description
This figure group is a copy of Sir Francis Chantrey's marble sculpture of 'The Sleeping Children' at Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire. The original sculpture was commissioned by Ellen-Jane Robinson as a memorial to her daughters, Ellen-Jane and Marianne, who died in 1813 and 1814. It was completed in 1816 and displayed at the Royal Academy, before being moved to the cathedral the following year. This figure group is made of Parian, a type of unglazed porcelain that was developed to imitate white marble from the Greek island of Paros. Parian was developed in Staffordshire in the 1840s and was most often used to make small copies of marble sculptures - including Classical forms, but also popular works by contemporary artists such as Chantrey and specially commissioned models. Minton produced more than 500 Parian figures during the mid to late 1800s. A sketch of this figure group is in Minton's Ornament's Book, where it is described as 'Chantry's Group', model number 126.
Marks and inscriptions
Underside of base: August '28 (incised) Underside of base: MINTON (impressed)
Makers and roles
Minton's Ltd (Minton and Co.) , manufacturer after Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841), sculptor