Lot Essay
Cf. Bernard Rackham, Schreiber Collection Catalogue (1928), Vol. I, pl. 19, no. 201; Arthur Hayden, Old English Porcelain, The Lady Ludlow Collection (1932), pl. 103, no. 210 and pl. 104, no. 211, for a similar model of the lady with a different male pendant; see also Frank Stoner, Chelsea, Bow and Derby Porcelain Figures (1955), plate 36; and Peter Bradshaw, English Porcelain Figures (1981), pp. 117 & 294. Bernard Rackham, The Connoisseur, July 1925, p. 135, no. 3 has the two figures listed as 'Vauxhall Revellers' and refers to the mismatched examples in the Lady Ludlow Collection cited above.
The present figures exemplify a continuing taste among fashionable English society for exotic Turkish costume that the Chelsea porcelain factory had first sought to meet in the early 1750s with models by Joseph Willems; see Arthur Lane, 'Chelsea Porcelain Figures and the Modeller Joseph Willems', The Connoisseur, June 1960, p. 245, which demonstrates the derivation of Willems's models of ladies in Turkish dress from engravings made by Simon-François Ravenet, after Boucher. Horace Walpole, writing in the World (February 8th, 1753) noted how the new craze for anything Oriental and exotic had infiltrated fashionable dining: 'Jellies, biscuits, sugar plumbs, and creams have long since given way to harlequins, gondoliers, Turks, Chinese and shepherdesses of Saxon China' (the Chelsea factory competed closely against this 'Saxon China', i.e. Meissen porcelain, often imitating or emulating it's wares).
While the design source for the present models has yet to come to light, the figures are obviously intended to represent fashionable Londoners of the time wearing fanciful Turkish costume, not authentic Turks, and therefore the models are never referred to as Turks in the literature. For example, the Chelsea Sale catalogue of 1770 lists 'Two Masquerade Figures', a description which may perhaps refer to these particular models. Arthur Hayden (op. cit.) refers to 'a pair of figures of "The Vauxhall Singers"'. McKenna describes them as 'A pair of larger and more elaborate masqueraders, or possibly Vauxhall singers, decorated with the utmost magnificence in what was considered to be the Turkish taste', while Peter Bradshaw refers to them as 'Vauxhall Revellers'. The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, then known as New Spring Gardens, were in their ascendance in the mid 18th Century.
The present figures exemplify a continuing taste among fashionable English society for exotic Turkish costume that the Chelsea porcelain factory had first sought to meet in the early 1750s with models by Joseph Willems; see Arthur Lane, 'Chelsea Porcelain Figures and the Modeller Joseph Willems', The Connoisseur, June 1960, p. 245, which demonstrates the derivation of Willems's models of ladies in Turkish dress from engravings made by Simon-François Ravenet, after Boucher. Horace Walpole, writing in the World (February 8th, 1753) noted how the new craze for anything Oriental and exotic had infiltrated fashionable dining: 'Jellies, biscuits, sugar plumbs, and creams have long since given way to harlequins, gondoliers, Turks, Chinese and shepherdesses of Saxon China' (the Chelsea factory competed closely against this 'Saxon China', i.e. Meissen porcelain, often imitating or emulating it's wares).
While the design source for the present models has yet to come to light, the figures are obviously intended to represent fashionable Londoners of the time wearing fanciful Turkish costume, not authentic Turks, and therefore the models are never referred to as Turks in the literature. For example, the Chelsea Sale catalogue of 1770 lists 'Two Masquerade Figures', a description which may perhaps refer to these particular models. Arthur Hayden (op. cit.) refers to 'a pair of figures of "The Vauxhall Singers"'. McKenna describes them as 'A pair of larger and more elaborate masqueraders, or possibly Vauxhall singers, decorated with the utmost magnificence in what was considered to be the Turkish taste', while Peter Bradshaw refers to them as 'Vauxhall Revellers'. The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, then known as New Spring Gardens, were in their ascendance in the mid 18th Century.