17TH/18TH CENTURY, PERHAPS LONDON

See the example from the Longridge Collection sold Christie's, New York, 24 January 2011, lot 76 for a variation on this model enriched in a bright palette similar to the 1679 figure of Ignis, formerly in the Rous Lench Collection. The present example, taken from a different mould, has a more muted palette. Very few English delft figures survive, of the four known examples of this group the closest in modelling is the blue-glazed example now in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto. This monochrome example was excavated in Greek Street, Soho, 1929, and has been sold twice in these Rooms, for the first time on 21 May 1973, lot 47, then again on 19 May 1980, lot 1. Excavations in Boston and Southwark have also revealed similar fragments, see John C. Austin, British Delft at Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1994, p. 18, fig. 10 and Frank Britton, London Delftware, London, 1987, p. 139.