The Royal Arms: C.949-1928

Titles

The Royal Arms

Maker(s)

Production: John Walton
Walton, John

Entities

• Spill vase
• Spill holder
• Animal figure group
• Staffordshire figure group (early)
• Ornament

Categories

• Earthenware
• Lead-glazed earthenware

Description

Earthenware spill vase. moulded and modelled, lead glazed and painted with polychrome enamels.

Animal figure group representing the Royal Arms. In the centre is a spill vase formed from a grey-green column surmounted by a red and gold crown. On the front of the column is the Royal shield, inscribed ‘HOMI [sic] . SOIT . QUI . MAL . Y. PENSE’, above a rose and thistle. It is supported by the lion and the unicorn, each on its hind legs and standing on a scrolling ribbon inscribed ‘DIEU ET MON DROIT’. The inscriptions are incised and coloured black. The group is brightly coloured with enamels over a blue-tinged glaze and stands on a green kidney-shaped cushion. A shallow rectangular base is coloured to imitate marble. The underside is recessed and glazed. On the back, ‘WALTON’ is impressed on a scroll.

Notes

History note: Captain Reynolds Collection, London, sold to Messrs Gill and Reigate. Bought by Mr Stoner, London, from whom purchased in 1910 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr Glaisher paid £125 for this and fourteen other pieces, as part of a purchase of 35 figures and figure groups.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L.Glaisher Bequest, 1928

Place(s) associated

• Burslem ⪼ Staffordshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Early#
1820 - 1830

Note

Earthenware figure groups were popular from around 1810, although the earliest examples date from nearly a century earlier. A cheaper alternative to porcelain figures, they were often produced by small potteries; very few are marked. These early figure groups are often complex, including modelled and moulded parts and applied decoration and the backs, though flat, are decorated. But as demand increased, processes were streamlined to allow mass production and by c.1835 the earlier, relatively costly, methods had largely given way to three-part press-moulding.

‘The Royal Arms’ was probably made to celebrate the accession of either George IV (1820) or William IV (1830). John Walton (1780-c.1835) is listed in an 1818 commercial directory as a colour maker and earthenware figure manufacturer; the business was taken over by his son-in-law George Hood, during the 1830s. His figures are notable for their rich colours, they are often set against bocage (stylised leafy trees) and many of his subjects are taken from porcelain originals; the rectangular ‘marble’ base used here is also typical of his work.