Lady with bird cage
Figure
1758-1759 (modelled), ca. 1760 (made)
1758-1759 (modelled), ca. 1760 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This figure is one of a pair, the male companion being C.989-1919. The male figure is holding a hat and pointing to it, while his female companion holds a birdcage in her right hand. The small small songbird she has just released from the cage is about to fly into the hat from her left hand. To 18th-century eyes the meaning of this would have been clear: it symbolized that the woman was about to surrender her virginity to the suitor (the hat with its central opening symbolizes the sexual act). The birdcage was a symbol of the woman's virginity, which was intact, if the bird was still in the cage, but which was not if the door was open and the bird had flown. This symbolism appears in countless Continental European porcelain figure groups.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Lady with bird cage |
| Materials and techniques | Hard-paste porcelain painted with colours and gilded |
| Brief description | Figure of a lady with a bird cage in hard-paste porcelain painted with colours and gilded, modelled by J.F. Lück 1758-1759, Frankenthal Porcelain Factory, Frankenthal, ca. 1760. |
| Physical description | Figure of a lady with a bird cage in hard-paste porcelain painted with colours and gilded. She wears a green cap and collar, purple bodice, yellow skirt flowered in green, orange apron and shoes. She holds the cage in her right hand and the bird is in her left. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Bequeathed by Miss Florence Augusta Beare in memory of Arthur Doveton Clarke |
| Object history | For the companion male figure see C.989-1919 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This figure is one of a pair, the male companion being C.989-1919. The male figure is holding a hat and pointing to it, while his female companion holds a birdcage in her right hand. The small small songbird she has just released from the cage is about to fly into the hat from her left hand. To 18th-century eyes the meaning of this would have been clear: it symbolized that the woman was about to surrender her virginity to the suitor (the hat with its central opening symbolizes the sexual act). The birdcage was a symbol of the woman's virginity, which was intact, if the bird was still in the cage, but which was not if the door was open and the bird had flown. This symbolism appears in countless Continental European porcelain figure groups. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.950-1919 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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