Femal musician reclining on a couch: C.880-1984

Titles

Femal musician reclining on a couch
Zuleika, in Byron's 'The Bride of Abydos'

Maker(s)

Production: John & Rebecca Lloyd (Perhaps)

Entities

• Figure
• Victorian Staffordshire figure
• Flat-backed figure

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware

Description

White earthenware moulded in several parts and lead-glazed, with tiny shards of clay as decoration. Painted underglaze in cobalt blue and with black, grey, brown, green, yellow, maroon, pink and flesh-pink enamels, and gilt.

A woman in Middle Eastern dress lounges on a couch with her feet up, resting against the arm and playing a stringed instrument. The figure is well coloured. She wears a long green, fur trimmed coat over pink and grey striped harem pants and a mustard yellow dress, trimmed in pink; a pink sash; and a light pink turban. Her bodice and sleeves are edged in thick gilt and the turban bears a gilt crescent at the front. Her shoes are black and pointed; her hair is brown; her features are finely painted. The table base has six legs, above which is a thick gilt line; the front is decorated with gilt leaf motifs; the top is moulded to form a couch, with a raised arm to the right. The couch is a deep blue. The underside, which forms two concave tunnels, has a vent hole and is glazed. The figure is moulded and decorated in the round.

Notes

History note: From the collection of the late Colonel R.G. Turner.

Legal notes

Given by Mrs J E Cameron 1984, from the collection of the late Col R G Turner

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1984) by Cameron, J.E., Mrs

Dating

19th Century, Mid#
Production date: circa AD 1840

Note

The figure may represent Zuleika, the heroine, of Byron’s poem ‘The Bride of Abydos’. Anthony Oliver has argued that several characters in Middle Eastern dress, made prior to the Crimean War, derive from this poem, which was published in 1813. The poem was first dramatised in 1918, with Edmund Kean as the hero Selim. It was successfully revived at Sheffield in 1840 and at Astley’s, Drury Lane in May 1947. It also appeared as a toy theatre production, and the first illustrated edition of the poem was published in 1838.

The table base and the figure moulded in the round suggest a production date of around 1840. The figure shares a number of features with others that have been attributed to John and Rebecca Lloyd, who made both earthenware and porcelain figures at Shelton between 1834 and 1852 (see Oliver (1981), p.109). These include the complex moulding, the addition of tiny shards of clay for fur around the coat, generous gilding and the thick gilt line across the base, and the well-fired use of enamel colours particularly associated with the Lloyd factory, notably the sage green coat and the pink turban. There are also similarities with the moulding and decoration of male and female standing figures in Middle Eastern dress shown in Pugh (1970) and Oliver (1981), both of which are impressed ‘Lloyd Shelton’.

There is a pair to this figure, a similarly dressed and decorated man, with a shisha/hookah pipe. The dress and pose of these figures suggest they are theatrical.

School or Style

Victorian