A rare and early Bow figure of the Huntsman’s Companion, circa 1752

This rare and early Bow figure of a huntsman’s companion is modelled in the white, on a square rockwork base. She is dressed in hunting attire, seated on a stump and holding a shotgun in her left hand, with the stock resting on the ground. Her right arm is supported on a rustic fountain. At her feet, a small dog places a paw on the basin rim.

This figure and its male companion were made in the period immediately after the works of the ‘Muses Modeller’.

Condition: The glaze is characteristic of the very early 1750s, being mostly matt but lardy in places, tinged with blue and covered with tiny speckles of kiln dust and pinholes. There are minor losses and staining to the brim of the hat and the fingers on her right hand, as well as to the very tip of the gun and the faucet. There is a tiny flat chip to the edge of the base. The glaze is thicker on the underside, although part of this area is entirely devoid of glaze, revealing the biscuit body beneath. The thumb print indicates that this is where the figure was held when it was dipped into the glaze. There are clay tears to the inside, from manufacture. No restoration.

Dimensions: Height 12.8 cm

Bow Porcelain: The Collection formed by Geoffrey Freeman, A. Gabszewicz & G. Freeman (Lund Humphries, 1982), pl.193.

The Watney Collection of Fine Early English PorcelainPart I, Phillips, 22 September 1999, lot 42.

The Watney Collection of Fine Early English PorcelainPart II, Phillips, 10 May 2000, lot 458.

The Roy Hogarth Collection of Rare English Figures, for the Sportsman, exhibition catalogue, no.2, March 2018, E&H Manners.

Refs. A similar example was included in the Wallace Elliot Collection, Sotheby’s, 25 May 1938, lot 208.

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