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Tile
Sadler, John, born 1720 - died 1789 - Enlarge image
Tile
- Place of origin:
Liverpool, England (made)
- Date:
ca.1777 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Sadler, John, born 1720 - died 1789 (maker)
James Roberts, born 1753 - died 1813 (engraver) - Materials and Techniques:
Glazed earthenware
- Credit Line:
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996
- Museum number:
S.630-1997
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This tile showing Ann Barry (1734-1801) as Sir Harry Wildair in The Constant Couple, or, A Trip to the Jubilee by George Farquhar is one of a series of late 18th-century tiles of actors and actresses produced in Liverpool by John Sadler (1720-1789). Sadler experimented with transfer-printing on white glazed delftware tiles, transferring images from engraved copper plates to tiles, using enamel colours fixed in low-temperature firing.
Actors and actresses could become big stars in the 18th century, when theatres, concert halls and pleasure gardens were the major forms of public entertainment. Engravers regularly produced images of paintings of the most popular performers, so the ability to reproduce engravings on ceramics was a lucrative development. Since the engravings were transfer-printed, the original images appear on the tiles in reverse.
Born and educated in Bath, Ann Barry became an actress in York and in 1754 married William Dancer, an actor in York. In the 1758-1759 season they were engaged by the actor Spranger Barry at his Crow Street Theatre in Dublin and became a star there within a year. She embarked on a relationship with Barry whom she married, probably in 1768, after her husband's death. Garrick employed Spranger and Ann Barry at Drury Lane Theatre where she became known as one of the finest actresses of her day, rivalling the supremacy of even the great Sarah Siddons.
