THE TOURING COLLECTOR 'Another robust piece of strategy was brought into play when we were on a northern tour. There were a pair of faience figures at Avenue House which had belonged to Pierpoint Morgan and of which my grandfather was passionately fond. Stopping at Berwick-upon-Tweed, we went to visit Mr. Knox's antique shop, a regular calling place. From across the street we could see in the window another pair of faience figures from the same set as the ones at Ampthill. We all saw them at exactly the same time and my grandfather, my mother and I bolted across the street in a fairly disorderly stampede and threw ourselves at Mr. Knox's little door. My grandfather was very stout and with the number of overcoats and waistcoats that he usually wore, very solid indeed. The door did not give way but we became wedged in the tiny entrance each shouting 'I saw them first!'...My grandfather held up his gigantic umbrella to bar our entry while he wrenched open the door handle and pounced on the faience figures. It was quite good humoured, but it was bulk which had the prior claim, not seniority as he afterwards tried to tell us!' S. Houfe, The Professor

A WEDGWOOD MAJOLICA FIGURE OF A FAUN

CIRCA 1880, IMPRESSED WEDGWOOD

Details

A WEDGWOOD MAJOLICA FIGURE OF A FAUN
CIRCA 1880, IMPRESSED WEDGWOOD
Modelled after Clodion stepping across a circular base in front of a tree-stump, with his right leg outstretched behind him, with dead game birds and bunches of grapes hung from sticks across his back and an animal skin about his waist, his pipes at his feet (right foot, left arm, one stick and birds restored)
16 in. (40.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Probably H.P. Markham, Olney, Buckinghamshire, where acquired on 12 June 1959.

Literature

A.E. Richardson, diary entry, 12 June 1959.

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Lot Essay

This figure was made as a pair, with its companion figure Bacchante, and is more frequently seen in black basalt. See Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, London, 1989, Volume II, p. 467, ill. 755, for both figures in black basalt. Terracotta examples of these figures by the French sculptor Claude Michel (1738-1814), who assumed the name Clodion, are in the Tower Room at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire.

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