Figure
Bow Porcelain Factory (fl.c. 1748-1774)
Category
Ceramics
Date
c. 1750 - 1752
Materials
Soft paste porcelain
Measurements
250 x 150 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 433516.1
Summary
One of a pair of figures, soft paste porcelain, representing the actor Henry Woodward (1714–77) in the roles of Ye Fine Gentleman in David Garrick’s play Lethe, Bow, London, c. 1750–2, undecorated.
Full description
Lethe was a mythological satire in which twelve characters enter Aesop’s grove in the underworld to drink the waters of the magic river Lethe. Each character longs for the opposite of what would be morally correct. Ye Fine Gentleman wishes to forget his modesty and good nature, while Mrs. Riot wishes to forget her husband who will not supply her with enough money to live fashionably: ‘The Best Company, People of Fashion! The Beau Monde! […] show me to glittering Balls, enchanting Masquerades!’ The figure of Woodward was based on an engraving by James McArdell (1728/9–65) after a panel drawing by Francis Hayman (1708–76). It bears a printed paper label from the 1868 exhibition catalogue of the National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds, cat. no. 2307, attributing a similar figure, loaned by William Edkins (active 1868–91, a collector of Plymouth and Bristol porcelain) to the exhibition, to Plymouth, with a note ‘Erroneously attributed usually to Bow’. This figure appears (together with the figure of Kitty Clive) in a display cabinet in a late-19th-century photograph of the Boudoir at Belton House.
Provenance
Purchased by the National Trust with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1984.
Makers and roles
Bow Porcelain Factory (fl.c. 1748-1774), manufacturer