A STAFFORDSHIRE CREAMWARE PLAQUE OF A TURK RIDING AN ELEPHANT
A STAFFORDSHIRE CREAMWARE PLAQUE OF A TURK RIDING AN ELEPHANT

CIRCA 1765

Details
A STAFFORDSHIRE CREAMWARE PLAQUE OF A TURK RIDING AN ELEPHANT
Circa 1765
The shaped rectangular panel moulded with a turk astride an elephant and a small chinoiserie scene at the upper right corner, within rope frame, decorated in underglaze blue, green and manganese, the reverse unglazed
6 3/8 x 8½in. (16.2 21.6cm.)
Provenance
With Jonathan Horne Antiques, London
Exhibited
London, Jonathan Horne, A Collection of Early English Pottery, Part III, March 1983, no. 62

Lot Essay

According to Mr. Horne, the present plaque is unique, although both the figure of the Turk and the model of the elephant are known in the round (Captain R.K. Price, Astbury Whieldon and Ralph Wood Figures and Toby Jugs, plate XXIV, figs. 16, 22). In adapting the models to high relief, the position of the Turk's left and right arms have been switched and his coat shortened. The saddle and straps have been added.

A pair of hawk plaques almost certainly by the same hand is in the Henry H. Weldon Collection. See Leslie B. Grigsby, English Pottery: Earthenware and Stoneware 1680-1800, The Henry H. Weldon Collection, London, 1990, no. 141 for a detailed discussion of these two pieces and their dating, based on the discovery of coloured glazes by Josiah Wedgwood in 1759.

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