Dog and bowl: C.1006-1928

Titles

Dog and bowl

Maker(s)

Production: James Dudson (Perhaps)

Entities

• Animal figure
• Inkstand
• Victorian Staffordshire figure
• Flat-backed figure

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware

Description

White earthenware animal figure, moulded in-the-round in several parts and lead-glazed. Painted in under-glaze blue and in black, orange and brown enamels and gilt.

The dog sits, facing left, its neck outstretched. Below its chin, a circular moulded dog bowl standing on the base doubles as both ink-well and vent hole. The dog is white with brown patches, and wears a gilt collar and chain, which runs down its left foreleg. Its eyes and whiskers are finely painted in black; its claws are touched in in under-glaze blue. The figure is well coloured. The base, a rough oval, is a deep but uneven blue; a gilt line runs across the front, its ends dipping towards the bottom. The underside is concave and glazed.

Notes

History note: Fenton and Sons, 11 New Oxford Street, London. Bought with two other pieces on 27 February 27 1915, for £20, by Dr Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr Glaisher considered the purchase value of this piece to be 16/- (sixteen shillings).

Legal notes

Dr. J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest, 1928

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Mid
Victorian
Circa 1840 CE - Circa 1850 CE

Note

Dr Glaisher generally only bought Victorian Staffordshire figures which represented a known person or place, or which could be dated. But, on purchasing this and another figure of a dog, he notes: ‘In both the base is of a bright blue, not uniform but shaded and very dark in places […]I think this dark blue first came into use about 1830 and rather distinguishes the period 1830-1845. The modelling in both is good […]. I always feel rather interested in the animals which serve also as ink stands’.

Rackham (1935) lists this figure as of a type made chiefly by Sampson Smith at Longton, a factory listed in contemporary directories as a ‘manufacturer of figures in great variety’, which began around 1851. But this figure is moulded in the round, so was probably made in the 1840s. The Dudson factory at Hanley produced many animal figures, particularly dogs, at this time. These were often on bases painted underglaze in a rich cobalt blue and with a gilt line across the front. The fine painting of the dog’s face, with the whiskers delicately painted and the eyes moulded with a dot at the centre and a fine black line above, also suggests that this is a Dudson figure. Dudson ledgers of 1842-44 show that dogs were made, both as pairs and inkwells, and that setters, for example, sold wholesale at 5/- (five shillings) a dozen (Dudson (2006), p.131).

School or Style

Victorian