Tragedy: C.936B-1928

Titles

Tragedy

Maker(s)

Production: Unidentified factory

Entities

• Figure
• Staffordshire figure (early)

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware
• Enamel painted figures

Description

Lead-glazed earthenware figure representing Tragedy painted in polychrome enamels

Earthenware, press-moulded, with slightly blue-tinted lead-glaze (pearl or china glaze), painted in blue, two shades of green, pale flesh pink, dark puce, grey and black enamels. A woman representing Tragedy, standing on an oval base beside a tombstone with a skull in relief. She holds a dagger in her right hand and a cup in her left. She wears a long, flowing, sleeveless, green gown and a dark puce cloak draped over her right shoulder. The tombstone is grey and inscribed ‘Momento …ori’ [for ‘memento mori’]. The base is a pointed oval mound, moulded in relief with flowers and painted in green, blue and red. The back of the figure is flattened, but fully detailed and painted. The underside is recessed and glazed, with a central ventilation hole.

Notes

History note: An unidentified owner in Wisbech by whom sold to Mr Wordinham of Cambridge; bought with a pair (C.936A-1928) from Mr. Wordingham on 8 August 1925, for £4, by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L.Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Early
Circa 1810 CE - Circa 1820 CE

Note

This is one of a pair of female figures representing Comedy and Tragedy, personifications which date from ancient Greece. The Fitzwilliam collection holds three such English earthenware figures, a pair (C.936A-1928 and C.936B-1928) and Tragedy (C.937-1928). Similarities in moulding and colours suggest that these may have come from the same maker. Pearlware figures decorated with enamels were in production by 1780, though the bright coloured enamels on these figures indicates an early 19th Century date. They were generally made at smaller potteries and are rarely marked. A cheaper alternative to porcelain figures, they drew on a variety of sources, including sculpture and porcelain figures. Classical, biblical, mythological and literary subjects were popular, as were animals and representations of rural life, seasons and trades. Here the bodies are simple 3-part moulds, with a few hand-modelled parts applied.

School or Style

Neoclassical