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Tragedy
Production: Unidentified factory
Lead-glazed earthenware figure of Tragedy painted with polychrome enamels
Earthenware, press-moulded, covered with blue-tinted lead-glaze, and painted in blue, green, yellow, red, purple, and black. A woman representing Tragedy, standing on an oval base beside a tombstone. She holds a dagger in her right hand and a cup in her left. She wears a long, flowing, sleeveless, purple gown and a white cloak draped over her right shoulder. The tombstone is yellow and inscribed ‘Memento’ [for ‘memento mori’]. The base is a pointed oval mound, painted in green, blue and red and with ‘TRAGEDY’ inscribed in impressed and blackened letters at the front. The back of the figure is flattened, but fully moulded and painted. The underside is recessed and glazed, with a central ventilation hole.
History note: Sotheby’s, 12 March 1909, lot no. 187; bought for £1.7s 0d. (one pound seven shillings) by S. Fenton of Cranbourn Street, London on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge.
Dr J.W.L.Glaisher Bequest, 1928
Height: 15.2 cm
Width: 10 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
19th Century, Early
George III
Circa
1810
-
Circa
1820
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 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.
Decoration
composed of
enamels
lead-glaze
Parts
Press-moulding : Earthenware, moulded with applied modelled parts, covered with blue-tinted lead-glaze and painted with green, blue, yellow, red, purple, and black enamels
Inscription present: illegible -possible signature?
Accession number: C.937-1928
Primary reference Number: 76411
Old object number: 3013
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:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Tragedy" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76411 Accessed: 2025-05-21 11:18:39
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76411
|title=Tragedy
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-05-21 11:18:39|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-76411
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/aa27/C_937_1928_1_201203_mdb56_mas.jpg"
alt="Tragedy"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Tragedy</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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