Lady Jane Franklin: C.1023B-1928

Titles

Lady Jane Franklin

Maker(s)

Production: Alpha factory (Perhaps)

Entities

• Figure
• Victorian Staffordshire figure
• Flat-backed figure

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware

Description

White earthenware figure moulded in three parts, with separately moulded left hand, and lead glazed. Painted with brown, black green, pink and flesh-pink enamels, and gilt.

The round to oval base is inscribed ‘LADY FRANKLIN’, painted in partly-incised gilt capitals with three gilt strokes to either side. The figure is mainly white, with features picked out in enamels and gilt, and stands on brown painted ground. She wears a gown with full sleeves; a two-tier flounced apron or petticoat decorated with gold motifs; a green necklace; a pink and green flower coronet; orange drop earrings; and black shoes. Her left arm is raised to waist height, her right holds the tasselled ends of her gilded girdle. The underside is concave and glazed. The back is moulded, with a vent hole 4.5cm from the bottom.

Notes

History note: Mr Delves at Rye; bought with figure of Sir John Franklin 14 November 1911 for 30 shillings by Dr Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L.Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Mid#
Victoria I
Production date: circa AD 1850

Note

Following Pugh (1970) and Balston (1958), it seems more likely that this figure was made by the ‘Alpha Factory’, an as yet unidentified producer whose figures share a number of common features. Here these include: well moulded in the round; a subsidiary moulding; and the title in partly incised capitals bracketed by three strokes of gilt.

In 1845, Sir John lead an expedition to discover the North West Passage, a route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, passing through the Canadian Arctic archipelago, but did not return. After many search parties, several of which were funded by Lady Franklin, traces of ships and provisions were found, but no survivors. The expedition has inspired a wide variety of artistic works, including a ballad Lady Franklin’s Lament, c.1852. It is likely seems likely that this pair of figures was made at around the same time.

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 and continued to make figures in quantity into the early part of the twentieth century. But Sampson Smith figures were rarely marked, and there were many other manufacturers of figures working in Staffordshire at this time.

This figure of Jane, Lady Franklin (1791 – 1875) is the pair to a figure of the English naval commander and Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin. They were married in 1828. When Sir John became Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania, from 1837-43, Lady Franklin became an explorer and social pioneer of some renown.

School or Style

Victorian