Summer: C.3035A-1928

Titles

Summer

Maker(s)

Factory: Longton Hall Porcelain Manufactory
Proprietor: William Littler & Co.

Entities

• Figure

Categories

• Soft-paste porcelain

Description

Soft-paste porcelain with thick glassy lead-glaze. Summer is represented as a woman holding a sheaf of corn, standing on a shallow circular base decorated with applied leaves and flower heads. She wears a cloth over her head, a bodice with three-quarter-length sleeves, and an apron over a long skirt.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Longton Hall ⪼ Staffordshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

18th Century, Mid#
George II
Circa 1750 CE - 1753 CE

Note

The glassy soft-paste porcelain of Longton Hall contained flint glass, ground flint, gypsum, limestone, and ball clay. The lead in the glass permitted it to fuse at a lower temperature, but also made it prone to warp or collapse during firing. This is shown by many warped waster fragments excavated on the site. For analysis, see M.S. Tite and M. Bimson ‘A technological study of English porcelains’, Archaeometry, 33, pt 1 (1991), pp. 3-27; Andrew Middleton and Michael Cowell, ‘Report on the examination and analysis of some porcelains from Longton Hall and West Pans’ in Bernard M. Watney, ‘Excavations at Longton Hall porcelain manufactory, Part 3: the porcelain and other ceramic finds’, Post-medieval Archaeology, 27 (1993), pp. 94-108. See also Barker, David and Cole, Sam., ‘William Littler at Longton Hall’, in the same authors eds., Digging for Early Porcelain, The Archaeology of Six 18th-century British porcelain Factories, Stoke-on-Trent, 1998, pp. 4-21, especially pp. 11-15.

The thick glaze on the early Longton Hall figures led to them becoming known as 'Snowman Figures'. This figure was one of a set of four 'Rustic Seasons', of which Winter is also in the Fitzwilliam Museum, C.3035B-1928. The woman holds a sheaf of corn, the attribute of Summer. When purchased in 1922 they were attributed to Bow. another example of Summer is in the Katz Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.