Sculpture of The Day: The Sailor's Lass, 1765

The Sailor's Lass
1765
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This figure in soft-paste porcelain is painted with enamels and gilded. It depicts a winsome Sailor's lass. She wears a black apron and skirt blown sideways by the wind as she stands, awaiting her love. She wears only one glove.


As a symbol of her missing nautical paramour, around her neck is a ribbon with a pendant consisting of a heart pierced by an arrow.

Sadly, they will never be reunited as she will forever stand by her floating tree (representing her fading youth) on her decidedly Rococo base.

This was manufactured in Derby, England, by William Duesbury and Co. in 1765.