Figure
ca. 1770-1775 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The earliest porcelain figures were made for the dessert course of grand dinners and replaced the sugar paste and wax figures made since medieval times for royal feasts. Originally intended as expressions of dynastic power and to celebrate political allegiances, allegorical themes had been introduced into these table settings by the 16th century. By the 18th century many were entirely decorative. Meissen in Germany was the first factory to make porcelain figures for the dessert. It set the sculptural conventions followed by porcelain factories elsewhere.
In the 1760s, at the Chelsea, Bow and Derby factories, porcelain figures acquired a leafy bower or ‘bocage’ and moved from the table to the mantelpiece where they have remained. This figure, one of a ‘Pair of Moors’, was produced at Derby around 1770-75. It depicts a black woman in richly decorated clothes wearing a headdress to which three feathers are attached. Her right arm is raised and she holds an apple in her right hand. Black Africans offered so-called exotic associations and were a marker of luxury in Western European households, however these objects show an orientalised fantasy of Black enslaved people who were exploited through the production of luxury products such as tea, spice and sugar, all products of the transatlantic slave. Here they are transformed into racist ornamental commodities and luxury products of costly porcelain which aestheticizes the exploitation of Black people during this time.
In the 1760s, at the Chelsea, Bow and Derby factories, porcelain figures acquired a leafy bower or ‘bocage’ and moved from the table to the mantelpiece where they have remained. This figure, one of a ‘Pair of Moors’, was produced at Derby around 1770-75. It depicts a black woman in richly decorated clothes wearing a headdress to which three feathers are attached. Her right arm is raised and she holds an apple in her right hand. Black Africans offered so-called exotic associations and were a marker of luxury in Western European households, however these objects show an orientalised fantasy of Black enslaved people who were exploited through the production of luxury products such as tea, spice and sugar, all products of the transatlantic slave. Here they are transformed into racist ornamental commodities and luxury products of costly porcelain which aestheticizes the exploitation of Black people during this time.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels and gilded |
Brief description | Figure in soft-paste porcelain painted in enamels and gilded of a black woman, Derby Porcelain Factory, Derby, ca. 1770-1775. |
Physical description | Figure in soft-paste porcelain painted in enamels and gilded of a black woman standing, and wearing a flower print fabric buttoned once at her chest and wrapped around like a skirtcloth. She wears a headdress formed of a band and three feathers and her right arm is raised, holding up an apple. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions | (Patch marks) |
Credit line | Bequeathed by Herbert Allen |
Object history | One of a pair with C.193-1935. |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | The earliest porcelain figures were made for the dessert course of grand dinners and replaced the sugar paste and wax figures made since medieval times for royal feasts. Originally intended as expressions of dynastic power and to celebrate political allegiances, allegorical themes had been introduced into these table settings by the 16th century. By the 18th century many were entirely decorative. Meissen in Germany was the first factory to make porcelain figures for the dessert. It set the sculptural conventions followed by porcelain factories elsewhere. In the 1760s, at the Chelsea, Bow and Derby factories, porcelain figures acquired a leafy bower or ‘bocage’ and moved from the table to the mantelpiece where they have remained. This figure, one of a ‘Pair of Moors’, was produced at Derby around 1770-75. It depicts a black woman in richly decorated clothes wearing a headdress to which three feathers are attached. Her right arm is raised and she holds an apple in her right hand. Black Africans offered so-called exotic associations and were a marker of luxury in Western European households, however these objects show an orientalised fantasy of Black enslaved people who were exploited through the production of luxury products such as tea, spice and sugar, all products of the transatlantic slave. Here they are transformed into racist ornamental commodities and luxury products of costly porcelain which aestheticizes the exploitation of Black people during this time. |
Bibliographic reference | Twitchett, John. Derby Porcelain. London : Barrie & Jenkins, 1980. pl. 54.
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Collection | |
Accession number | C.193A-1935 |
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Record created | April 27, 2006 |
Record URL |
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