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Conrad the Corsair Edmund Kean as Richard III
Production: Unidentified factory
White earthenware moulded in three parts, with separately moulded arms and hat trim and small shards of clay added as decoration. Lead glazed. Painted underglaze in cobalt blue and with black, green, red, orange, yellow, pink and flesh-pink enamels, and gilt.
A man stands with left leg resting on an upper rock, his hand on his knee. His right hand holds a scroll. He looks away over his right shoulder. The figure is well coloured. He wears a short orange cape and a blue doublet over a white shirt, with pink and green striped shoulders. His breeches and the feathers in his hat are also pink and green, and he has a pink belt tied around his waist. His clothes are edged with gilt and his black boots have mustard-yellow tops. He has a moustache and long black hair. The ground is green and yellow with lightly combed dark pink touches; two of the tufts have pink flower centres. The base is shaped like a tear-drop; it has a gilt line across the front and on top it is moulded to form a rocky mound, with three applied tufts of foliage. The underside is concave and glazed, with a vent hole towards the back. The back is flat, decorated to the top and marked with diagonal scoring to the clay below.
History note: From the collection of the late Colonel R.G. Turner.
Given by Mrs J E Cameron, from the collection of the late Col R G Turner. 1984
Depth: 5.5 cm
Depth: 2.25 in
Height: 20.0 cm
Height: 7.875 in
Width: 8.9 cm
Width: 3.5 in
Method of acquisition: Given (1984) by Cameron, J.E., Mrs
19th Century, Mid#
Victorian
Circa
1850
CE
-
Circa
1870
CE
An alternative source may be a performance by the English actor Edmund Kean (1789-1833) as Richard III, at the Brighton Theatre,c.1815. Pugh (1970) illustrates a 9 inch version which, whilst more elaborately modelled and decorated and in slightly more flamboyant pose, undoubtedly represents the same figure; this had been found with a paper label indicating its source was a print from the production. However, the original print has so far not been identified.
The flattened, partially coloured back and the use of underglaze cobalt blue indicate a date of c.1850-1870. There were many manufacturers of figures working in Staffordshire at this time, but there are no typical features here to suggest that the figure can be attributed to a particular factory.
This figure is almost certainly a literary or theatrical character. It has been thought to represent ‘Conrad’, the pirate chief hero of Byron’s poem ‘The Corsair' (first published in 1814), but no evidence has been found to support this attribution.
Decoration composed of enamels ( black, green, red, orange, yellow, pink and flesh-pink) underglaze cobalt-blue gold
Press-moulding
: White earthenware moulded in three parts, with separately moulded arms and hat trim and small shards of clay added as decoration. Lead glazed. Painted underglaze in cobalt blue and with black, green, red, orange, yellow, pink and flesh-pink enamels, and gilt. The underside is concave and glazed, with a vent hole towards the back. The back is flat, decorated to the top and marked with diagonal scoring to the clay below.
Painting
Lead-glazing
Gilding
Inscription present: Rectangular paper label
Accession number: C.869-1984
Primary reference Number: 76252
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Conrad the Corsair" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76252 Accessed: 2024-12-18 17:19:29
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76252
|title=Conrad the Corsair
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 17:19:29|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-76252
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa2/C_869_1984_281_29.jpg"
alt="Conrad the Corsair"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Conrad the Corsair</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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