A Staffordshire flatback depicting The Death of the Lion Queen, pottery, circa 1850
Ellen Eliza Blight (Bright) was a Victorian lion tamer known as ‘The Lion Queen’. On the evening of 11 January 1850, at the age of 17, Ellen was killed by a tiger whilst working at her uncle George Wombwell’s Menagerie in Chatham, Kent. She had entered a cage containing both a lion and a tiger. The latter jumped at her and caught her dress, bringing her to the ground. The tragic scene was depicted in The Illustrated London News (see below), forming the basis for this Staffordshire flatback which would have been produced shortly thereafter.
The inquest into Ellen’s death recorded that the tiger held her ‘furiously by the neck, inserting the teeth of the upper jaw in her chin and closing his mouth, inflicting frightful injury in the throat by his fangs.‘
With a lion to her right, the scene captures the moment at which the tiger jumps up at Ellen. The moulded flatback is decorated with colourful enamels and applied with four patches of sieved and painted clay simulating foliage. Ellen’s bodice and hat are decorated with additional gilt details and the front of the base has a gilt line. There is a small vent hole to the reverse and the underside. Although this particular flatback is untitled, examples do exist with the title Death of the Lion Queen written in gilt script. In the majority of surviving examples, the tiger is incorrectly depicted as a leopard.
Condition: The head has been off at some point and restuck, with some overpainting to the break. There are a few hairlines to the hat and the feather is restored, as is the front-left paw of the tiger. There is a tiny nick to the edge of the base and typical crazing to the glaze. The decoration is good, with only minor flaking to the enamels in places.
Dimensions: Height 33.3 cm; Width (across the base) 18.5 cm; Depth (across the base) 8.5 cm
Staffordshire Portrait Figures of the Victorian Era, P.D. Gordon Pugh (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1988).
