Figure of the Day: Tom Cribb, 1815

Figure of Tom Cribb
One of a Pair
Staffordshire, 1815
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

As the middle class of Britain grew during the rise of the Industrial Revolution so did the need for attractive items to decorate their increasingly well-appointed homes. The overarching desire was to emulate the fine decorations of the wealthiest homes. During the Nineteenth Century, some of the most popular collectible objects were the porcelain objects of the Meissen Porcelain Factory in Germany. However, even for the most well-to-do, these figures were quite costly. The potteries and factories in Staffordshire, England, strove to create less-expensive figures in a similar style. This allowed a greater amount of people to afford these types of figures which also signaled a form of, as the V&A puts it, “Visual Literacy,” as they depicted important personalities from the Royal Family, literature, the arts, theatre, politics and sporting teams.

Here, from 1815, we see a figure from the sporting world—Tom Cribb, the most celebrated “bare-knuckle” fighter of the period. This figure is one of a pair. The other showed Tom Molyneaux, a former slave from Virginia. The group was meant to commemorate a famed boxing match between the two men. 

The figures are made of molded, lead-glazed earthenware which has been painted in enamels. Cribb, by the way, won the match when his opponent was cited, some might say unjustly so, for “unfair play.”