Pair of small Derby ‘Seasons’ figures, Spring and Summer, c. 1770

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Two Derby ‘Seasons’ figures, represented as children in contemporary clothing, with a seated girl holding a tall wheat sheaf strewn with blue flowers representing Summer, a flowerhead & wheat garland to her head & flowering bocage behind ; her companion a seated boy representing Spring, a garland of flowers in his hands and on his head, a flowery bocage behind; on rococo scroll bases with gold & turquoise detailing.

Unmarked, circa 1770

13cm high

Condition: minor losses & firing flaws, they display well.

ref. Bradshaw p118 , E76 – “The Four Adolescent Seasons …. represented by seated children in contemporary dress, on scrolled bases before small bocages”. He documents Spring, Autumn and Winter with a description, but ends by stating “Example of Summer unknown to author”. However, in the following section which lists the numbered models (p220) he illustrates the same Summer figure as shown here, where marked examples are ‘No. 61’. The original lists describe “Four sitting Seasons”, and the examples listed by Bradshaw are all girls, suggesting this was a feminine seasonal grouping.

There is an earlier version of ‘Spring’ and ‘Summer’ (with no Winter or Autumn recorded), Bradshaw D21 from the ‘Pale Family c.1756-9. However, while the poses are very similar, they are much less refined in their modelling. The 1760’s versions could logically be a re-working of the same figures to make them more up-to-date.

This boy ‘Spring’ matches Bradshaw’s E76 ‘Adolescent Seasons’, dated 1759-69, suggesting the earlier ‘Adolescent Seasons’ were two boys and two girls; Spring and Winter were boys, Summer and Autumn were girls. One difference to this example is the boy is absent the basket to hold his flowers, as illustrated by Bradshaw. This is probably just a case of it being overlooked by the ‘repairer’ – he has missed this component amongst the moulds when assembling the figure.

These two make a lovely couple, although minor differences suggest they may have met later in life; the way the base (same moulds) is painted, for example, differs.

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