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Lot Essay
It is thought this model was probably first made in the white around 1752. In 1753 (according to Peter Bradshaw, Bow Porcelain Figures, London, 1992, p.49) the highly distinct palette of colours which can be seen on the present lot was introduced in combination with honey gilding applied over brown enamel and used as a border embellishment. This palette was discontinued very shortly later. A sphinx, facing the opposite way to the current lot but decorated in exactly the same palette is illustrated by Raymond C. Yarborough, Bow Porcelain and the London Theatre (Michigan, 1996) colour plate III.
This model is traditionally thought to represent Margaret ('Peg') Woffington (1717-60), an extremely popular actress in her day. It is iconographically complicated, presenting a striking and unusual fusion between the modelling of the body of the sphinx, which shows a sculptural and architectural inspiration, in contrast to the lifelike and fashionable treatment of the head and shoulders. A sphinx in itself is allegorically rather complex, and it is hard to know to which of Peg's qualities the sculptor was alluding, if not simply just that she was possessed of much female animal power, as indeed she was; she had the raciest of reputations. For some years she lived openly with David Garrick, yet refused his repeated offers of marriage. Indeed, she had many affairs and refused to be tied down to any particular man. She was famously beautiful and alluring, and reportedly magnetic on the stage, whether acting as a woman, or, as a man. See also Yarborough, ibid., pp. 49-52; Bradshaw, ibid., p. 52 and fig. 6 and Lars Tharp, Hogarth's China (London, 1997), fig. 83.
This model is traditionally thought to represent Margaret ('Peg') Woffington (1717-60), an extremely popular actress in her day. It is iconographically complicated, presenting a striking and unusual fusion between the modelling of the body of the sphinx, which shows a sculptural and architectural inspiration, in contrast to the lifelike and fashionable treatment of the head and shoulders. A sphinx in itself is allegorically rather complex, and it is hard to know to which of Peg's qualities the sculptor was alluding, if not simply just that she was possessed of much female animal power, as indeed she was; she had the raciest of reputations. For some years she lived openly with David Garrick, yet refused his repeated offers of marriage. Indeed, she had many affairs and refused to be tied down to any particular man. She was famously beautiful and alluring, and reportedly magnetic on the stage, whether acting as a woman, or, as a man. See also Yarborough, ibid., pp. 49-52; Bradshaw, ibid., p. 52 and fig. 6 and Lars Tharp, Hogarth's China (London, 1997), fig. 83.