Figure of a gardener, biscuit porcelain, William Duesbury & Co., Derby, ca. 1790-1795

Figure of a male gardener in biscuit soft-paste porcelain with a smear glaze. He wears a loose-fitting shirt with a high collar, a scarf, a loose jacket and knee breeches. He is turning to his right, supporting his right arm on a tre-trunk. His right leg restes against the lower part of the trunk.

In J. Haslem's The Old Derby China Factory, London, 1876, models 335-359 ane listed as 'Spangler's and Coffee's Figures and Groups' with no further particulars. This model on the basis of his documented work appears to be by J.J. Spängler (born 1752, working at Derby 1790-1795). In a letter of Joseph Lygo to William Duesbury II, the female companion to model no. 359 is described as being vular and poorly modelled and the modeller responsible, William Coffee, is criticized. The V&A possesses an example of another gardener (C.262-1976), which is of poorer quality and which is presumably the companion made to this female figure by Coffee. It is likely that Coffee's pair were rejected and replaced by Spängler's using the same incised factory model number. For Spängler's work see Timothy Clifford, J.J. Spängler: a virtuoso modeller at Derby, Connoisseur, June 1978, and for a discussion of this figure in relation to Coffee see, Brian Bricknell, William John Coffee, 1998, fig 3 and pp. 25-26.

C.263-1976