Staffordshire pearlware figure of a fruit seller, Enoch Wood c. 1805

$1,250.00 AUD

Staffordshire pearlware figure of a fruit seller, modelled after a ‘Cries of London’ subject, ‘Strawberrys scarlet strawberrys” , decorated with underglaze colours of green, red, brown and a touch of yellow, standing on a very low grassy base with a square plinth beneath with slightly recessed edges.
Attributed to Enoch Wood,
Circa 1805

16cm high
Good condition, firing fault in bond to base, filled with potters clay & lightly fired suggesting a factory salvage of a mis-fired piece ?

This figure was almost certainly modelled from the famous ‘Cries of London’ series, painted by F. Wheatly in around 1795 and reproduced in prints extensively. Like with the makers of porcelain figures, the potters were eager to find a model that would appeal, and so the ‘latest craze’ of the time – such as Wheatly’s ‘Cries of London’ images being published in the mid 1790’s – was a saleable subject for the moment – until something else came along. We have dated this to the earliest years of the 19th century, a short while after the original source, and the quality and technique matches the confirmed Enoch Wood pieces closely. The figure is posed the same way as Wheatly’s creation, but in reverse, and bears the same large basket on her head with a cloth over it… to keep the birds out, perhaps? The painter of this piece has not had a good red pigment, and the resulting ‘fruits’ look remarkably like potatoes !

The probable source:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1516038&partId=1

In stock