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Figure
Chelsea Porcelain factory - Enlarge image
Figure
- Place of origin:
Chelsea, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1756 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Chelsea Porcelain factory (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Soft-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded
- Credit Line:
Given by E. F. Broderip, Esq.
- Museum number:
C.684-1925
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 118a, case 5
Object Type
Sets and pairs of porcelain figures of men and women in Turkish dress were popular in mid-18th-century Europe. They were used as table decorations during the dessert courses of grand dinners. To judge from sales records, this one probably represents a theatrical figure in Turkish dress.
Design & Designing
The Meissen factory in Germany was the first to make porcelain figures of Turks. These were copied by the English porcelain factories and some were also made in Staffordshire salt-glazed stoneware. The Chelsea porcelain factory in London copied both this man and his female companion from Meissen figures modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1776). Kaendler in turn based his figures on an engraving included in M. de Ferriol's Receuil de cent estampes representant different nations du Levant ('Collection of 100 prints representing different nations of the Levant [Near East]'), published in Paris in 1714. The female companion in the V&A is the correct model, but is differently painted and was not the original pair to this piece.
Trading
Pairs of men and women in Turkish dress were included in London auctions of Chelsea porcelain held in 1755 and 1756. Others were offered for sale together with figure groups in theatrical dress. Some groups were described as 'theatrical figures in Turkish dress'.
