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Figure
Lund and Miller - Enlarge image
Figure
- Place of origin:
Bristol (made)
- Date:
1750 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Lund and Miller (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Soft-paste porcelain, decorated in underglaze purple
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Mr Wallace Elliot
- Museum number:
C.97-1938
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, Room 52, The George Levy Gallery, case 6
Object Type
This English adaptation of a Chinese Taoist Immortal would have been purely decorative. Furniture designs of about the same date as this piece show similar figures displayed on wall brackets and on shelves built into elaborate carved and gilt mirrors. They were probably also displayed in small glazed 'china' cabinets and on chimney-pieces.
Materials & Making
The figure is made from a type of soft-paste porcelain containing soaprock. This was used in place of the china stone employed in true or 'hard-paste' porcelain of the Chinese type. It was mined under licence near the Lizard in Cornwall. Bristol was one of the first porcelain factories to use soaprock. Its use was noticed there in 1750, when it cost £5 a ton. 'Being so dear', wrote one observer, 'it must be much better than pipe clay'. The purple at the base of the figure is derived from manganese and was applied to the figure after the first firing but before it was dipped in glaze and the glaze fired on. Manganese is one of the few pigments that can withstand the heat of the first firing (around 1100-1150 degrees C), but it was very rarely used.
