CIRCA 1770

Details

AN ASSEMBLED SET OF FOUR PLYMOUTH PORCELAIN FIGURES EMBLEMATIC OF THE CONTINENTS
CIRCA 1770
Africa modeled with a crocodile, lion and elephant at her feet; America with a quiver of arrows; Europe holding a book and paint palette; and Asia holding an urn, a camel at her feet
13 in. (33 cm.) high, America

Provenance

Trapnell Collection, England.
With J. Rochelle Thomas, London.
Lucy Truman Aldrich, Providence, Rhode Island, 1938-55.
The Estate of Lucy Truman Aldrich, acquired September 1955.

Literature

D. Fennimore et al., The David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection: Decorative Arts, New York, vol. IV 1992, p. 49, no. 23.

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Lot Essay

This set of four Plymouth figures representing the four continents belonged to Aunt Lucy. We remember them well in her home, for she not infrequently put them on the dining room table as decoration.
D.R.

The Plymouth factory was founded in 1768 by William Cookworthy (1705-80), an apothecary. It is surmised that these models, first known at Vauxhall, were brought to Plymouth by the former Vauxhall mold-maker Hammersley. Compare the four examples in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (museum nos. 414:684-1885, 414:685-1885, C.553-1920 and C.555-1920).

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