Gifts of Grandeur: The Monkey in a Wig Snuffbox, 1872-1922

This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Porcelain snuffboxes from the late Nineteenth Century are considerably rarer than those of gold or hardstone since, despite being made in far greater quantities, most of them didn’t have the sturdiness necessary to survive. Snuffboxes made from porcelain mirrored the shapes of those of precious metal or stone and featured painted scenes or portraits.

The largest manufacturer of these boxes was Meissen in Germany, however, this example was produced in Fürstenberg ca.1750. In this case, the porcelain was later mounted into this form. The gold mounts date to 1872 and were changed in 1922.

The box is adorned with birds on the outside. These are painted in a realistic manner. However, the interior of the box features some odd adornment which is decidedly not realistic. The animals, on the inside, are treated as people, dressed in human costume. The predominant scene is that of a monkey in a wig who is administering an enema to a prostrate cat.

That's a sentence I don't get to type very often.

This box was once owned by HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent—the wife of the Duke of Kent (son of King George V and Queen Mary). 

Figure of the Day: John Liston as “Paul Pry,” 1820-29

John Liston as Paul Pry
1820-1829
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This Staffordshire figure, made in the 1820s, depicts John Liston (1776-1846), considered one of the leading comic actors of his day. The figurine shows Liston in character as “Paul Pry” in the play of the same name. This was one of the actor’s most famous roles and, therefore, this is one of several different figurines of Liston as Pry, the nosy and interfering star of the comic play by John Poole, which were produced in the 1820s—each modeled after contemporary engravings. 

Liston made the annoying character seem quite charming, somehow. The play enjoyed considerable success and, even, introduced several of the character’s catch-phrases into the popular vernacular. By 1825, people were quoting “Pry,’ with: “I hope I don't intrude,” “Just dropped in,” and “It's nothing to me,” with considerable gusto, and, soon, the name Paul Pry became a colloquial term for a busybody.

Figure of the Day: A Victorian Fairing, 19th C.

Porcelain Fairing
Germany, 19th C.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Fairings were small porcelain objects (boxes, little cups, vases, etc) of a figural design which were given out as prizes and trinkets at village fairs in Victorian England.  They’re relatively difficult to come by these days since they weren’t really as appreciated at the time as they are today.

The body of this Nineteenth Century fairing is of white porcelain with two figures on the base. One shows a seated man in a dressing gown and night-cap while the other is depicts a woman in casual day attire and a hat, carrying a folded umbrella.  A wee chest of drawers stands behind the figures. The front of the base is outlined in gilding, inscribed with “Missus is Master.”  Ha!

This, like most of the fairings used at British fairs was made in Germany.  Of the factories making them by far the most prolific was Conta and Boehme of Pössneck in Saxony. The subjects of these pieces vary from the innocent (playing children or animals or puns) to the saucy (bedroom frolics or the purely suggestive).

To Serve and Project: The Pugin Staffordshire Plate, 1848

Gothic Revival Plate
A.W.N. Pugin
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This plate was designed by the celebrated architect and writer A.W.N. Pugin, known for his association with the Palace of Westminster and as a leading figure in the Gothic Revival. This plate, with its trefoil and quatrefoil ornament, is a perfect example of Pugin's Gothic style sensibilities. According to the V&A, "Pugin had a long-standing relationship with Herbert Minton of Minton & Co. and produced many ceramic designs for the firm, including tiles as well as tableware."

The eight-lobed white plate feautures a rim decorated with raised quatrefoils in a buff color and gilding on blue ground. The playe's center shows raised vine leaves and grapes in gilding and green on a buff ground around a central circle containing a  green tudor rose surrounded with a band of trefoil shapes in gilding on blue.

It was made in Staffordshire, England around 1848.

Figure of the Day: The Flower Girl, c. 1760

The Flower Girl
The Bow Porcelain Factory
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This figure from the Bow Porcelain Factory depicts a young woman with a basket of flowers. She symbolizes Springtime with her basket of flowers, her pink bodice and green corsage and diapered skirt of red, yellow and green. Blue circles and stars adorn her outfit and match her blue shoes—topped by pink rosettes.

She’s wholly Rococo on her circular base with applied leaves. This work of soft-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilding followed the French fashion of porcelain figural groups designed for the dessert table. 

Mastery of Design: Queen Victoria's Anniversary Brooch, 1839

Brooch of Gold and Porcelain
Part of the Orange Blossom Parure
Commissioned by Prince Albert, 1845
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection 
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

This dear brooch of gold and white porcelain was a gift from Albert, the Prince Consort in 1845 for their wedding anniversary. Albert had appreciated the combination of white porcelain and gold, and had commissioned similar pieces for the Queen in this style.




This brooch takes the form of a sprig of orange blossoms—a flower usually associated with weddings. On the day of their wedding, Queen Victoria wore real sprays of orange blossoms on her bodice as well as in her hair. In commemoration of that, for their anniversaries, the Prince presented the Queen with jewels in the shape of orange blossoms—matching a pin he had made as an engagement gift. Eventually, Her Majesty amassed a beautiful orange blossom parure of which this piece became a part.

Upon the 1861 death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria made a list of special jewels which were to be placed in “The Albert Room” at Windso Castle. This room was left untouched and none of its contents were allowed to be moved. Among the jewels displayed there were the pieces of the Orange Blossom Parure, including this brooch and its original presentation box.

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Queen Elizabeth II

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Masterpiece of the Week: The Birds and Ferns Potpourri Vase, 1820

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Made purely for the sake of satisfying the senses, this cylindrical vase of square form, features a tapering neck, spreading foot and gilded handles in the form of grotesque animal heads. The central section of the vase is painted with a tree on which sits an exotic bird and a parrot above an abundance of roses and other flowers in blue, yellow, brown, orange, pink and black enamels. The background, in its entirety, undulates with an abstracted painted fern pattern in mauve.

The base is pierced with three circular holes and the lid—which is surmounted by the figure of a gilt, seated greyhound--is pierced with eight circular holes. These openings allowed scent to escape from the potpourri with which this vessel was filled.

These beautiful container was made in Longport, England, c. 1820 by Davenport & Co. who specialized in bone china which was gilt and painted in brilliant enamel colors. It is marked “DAVENPORT, LONGPORT.”

Figure of the Day: The Orange Girl, 1770-1784

The Orange Girl
Niderviller Pottery Factory
France, 1770-1884
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s another attractive French porcelain figure which, once, would have graced an elegant dining table in a wealthy household. She would have once been joined by similarly attired figures, but now, she stands alone.

With her pyramid of oranges supported on a tray, she’s clearly an orange seller. Given her station, however, she’s dressed quite well--in that fantastical way in which peasants were portrayed in these figure.

This is the work of the Niderviller Pottery and Porcelain Factory, dating somewhere between 1770 and 1784.

Figure of the Day: A West Pans Romantic Group, 1764-1770

Figural Group and Candle Holder
West Pans Factory
Scotland, 1764-1770
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A work of soft-paste porcelain, oil gilded, this figural group is the work of the West Pans Factory in Scotland.  It was made between 1764 and 1770.

The group depicts a pair of young lovers, under a wreathed, semi-circular arbor surrounded by blooming trees and roses.  The stems twist to form a handle and, at the top, is a convenient taper holder.  

Beautiful and functional, it's a perfect representation of the handsome work of Scottish porcelain factories of the middle-late Eighteenth Century.

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Sculpture of the Day: The Sense of Smell, c. 1752

The Sense of Smell
Derby Porcelain Factory

Modeled by Agostino Carlini (1713-1790) for the Derby Porcelain Factory between 1752 and 1755, this figure group of soft-paste porcelain is gilded and painted with enamels. The group comes from a series which depicted the senses. This one represents the sense of smell and depicts a woman holding a nosegay. She looks away from a curiously-bald child on a stool. The child is reaching for a flower to add to those already clipped. 

The Home Beautiful: The Chelsea Turkish Table Figure, 1755

Figure
Chelsea Porcelain Factory, 1755
The Victoria & Albert Museum

In the Eighteenth Century, in response to the popular dessert table figure groups made in France and Germany, Britain’s Chelsea Factory began making their own sets of porcelain figures designed to be brought out with the dessert course during a stylish meal in a wealthy household.

In Britain, in 1755, when this figure and its companions were made, porcelains depicting people in Turkish dress were highly fashionable.   The Meissen factory in Germany was the first to make porcelain figures of Turks. Those figures were quickly copied by the English porcelain factories in Staffordshire and Chelsea. The Chelsea porcelain factory copied the figure pictured here from a Meissen example modelled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1695-1749) in 1746.  This figure was part of a group meant for a dessert table.

Horace Walpole wrote of this decorative phenomenon in 1753 that displays of sugar plums and other confectionery had “long given way to harlequins, gondoliers, Turks, Chinese, and sheperdesses of Saxon china.”


This set is unique in that it wasn't just purely decorative, but useful.  The shell-shaped dishes attached to each figure would have served to hold candies, nuts or small pastries.

Gifts of Grandeur: An Enameled Figural Snuffbox, 1760-65

Snuffbox
English, 1760-65
The Victoria & Albert Museum

We’ve looked at many snuffboxes at Stalking the Belle Époque, but this is the first portrait head we’ve seen. This box of enamel, gold-mounted hardstone and soft-paste porcelain is formed as a girl's head atop a base of agate mounted in gold.

The words, “Je te connais beau masque” (“I know thee, beautiful mask”) are enameled around the base with a scrolled thumb-piece at the front. The mount is chased with scrolls and flowers. The enamel work shows a masterful hand as the head is painted with red lips, flesh tones, black patches and mask. Her eyes are set with diamonds.

The English preferred snuffboxes of precious metals or stone, so very few porcelain and pottery snuffboxes were ever made, making it exceptionally rare. Though it’s labeled as a snuffbox, others have conjectured that it was made, instead, to hold sweetmeats or pills. Though the porcelain box itself implies German (Meissen) manufacture, the mounts were made in England, possibly Birmingham.

Figure of the Day: Two Putti with Grapes, 1762-1770

Figure Group
French, c. 1760
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The work of the French Crépy-en-Valois Porcelain Factory, this figure group depicts two blond puttis seated face-to-face. Each one is holding a bunch of grapes. Figures like this one were designed to represent the seasons. Typically, those holding grapes denoted Autumn.

The soft-paste group, painted in enamels, was made between 1760 and 1770.

The underside is marked “D.C.O.” Interestingly, the enamel that we see on this figure is a later addition. For years, the piece was attributed to Mennecy, however, that attribution was amended when it was noticed that the figures had been re-fired with newer enameling.

Her Majesty's Furniture: The Putti Cabinet, 1855

Cabinet
Jackson and Graham, 1855
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This handsome cabinet was not made for domestic use, but rather as a sample of the ingenuity and talents of the craftsmen and designers of the London furnishing firm of Jackson and Graham. Made in the Eighteenth Century style, the cabinet was presented at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855 where it was heralded for its fineness.

The 1855 catalog notes of the cabinet that “the interior is finished with as much care as the exterior, being of satin-wood inlaid with tulip-wood and the fronts of the drawers inlaid with ivory and panelled, the panels being fitted with finely-chased and gilded metal-work.”  

The stars of the show are the three porcelain mounts depicting putti representing the arts.  These panels are mounted in gilt moldings which echo the shape of the central mirror.

The piece was designed by Alexandre Prignot (born 1822) who had been the chief designer for Jackson and Graham from 1849 to 1855. This piece was one of his final triumphs. The ceramics were supplied by Minton & Co. while Elkington & Co, offered the electroplated mounts. Cope and Collinson provided the casters.

The marquetry, giltwood, and inlays of marble and porcelain drew much positive attention and praise at the 1855 exhibition as did the mirror which surmounted the cabinet. 

The Home Beautiful: A Figure of Caritas, c. 1759

Caritas
Germany, 1759
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Made in Fürstenberg, Germany (presumably where the family of Diane is von), this figure group of hard-paste porcelain depicts a woman wearing a head-cloth and a flowered smock. Seated upon the sort of Rococo base one would expect from a German figure of the 1750s, the woman is nursing a child while other children are flitting about in various stages of dress. The group obviously is meant to represent Caritas (Charity). It’s the work of the Fürstenberg Porcelain Factory’s chief modeler Johann Christoph Rombrich and dates to about 1759. 

Figure of the Day: Charity, A Staffordshire Figure, 19th C.

Charity
From a Series of the Virtues
Staffordshire, England
C. 1838
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This early Staffordshire figure is part of group meant to depict the virtues of Faith, Hope, Love and Charity. Here, we see Charity in porcelain painted in enamel colors. She is portrayed as a woman in a white robe which is edges in red and covered with a pattern of floral sprigs. 

Charity carries a baby on her left arm as a small child stands by her right side. The rocky, polychrome plinth/mound upon which she stands has been inscribed with her name and is accentuated by a thin, red stripe.

To Serve and Project: A Meissen Coffee Pot and Cover, c. 1740

Coffee Pot
Meissen Porcelain Factory
circa 1740
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s a lovely pear-shaped coffee pot made by Germany’s Meissen Porcelain Factory and, possibly, decorated with enamels in the Netherlands. The coffee pot and cover are slightly gilded and the body of the pot depicts a pastoral scene of a shepherd who sits beside a stream. Near him a girl is spinning wool. They are surrounded by sheep who graze by a windmill and their faithful dog lies at their feet. 

The pot features a handsome scrolled loop handle and a projecting lip for pouring. The domed cover is typical of mid-Eighteenth Century Meissen Porcelain. It’s believed that once the pot was made in Germany, it was exported to Holland where it was painted. However, some curators challenge this idea and suggest that it was painted in England. 

Figure of the Day: A Victorian Fairing, 19th C.

Fairing
German, 1887
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Fairings were so-called because they were given out as prizes and souvenirs at Victorian fairs. These porcelain trinkets were often made in Germany for the English market. Here’s another great example of a Nineteenth Century fairing.

The body of this piece is made of white porcelain which has been coated with a brilliant, shiny glaze. The base is typical of these objects—a moulded rectangle fitted with scrollwork at the reverse.

These objects often depicted comical scenes. The group here depicts two women in sporting dress, each on a bicycle. They are about to collide, prompting the caption:A dangerous encounter. 
This fairing is marked :

'1887', 'OM', 'I'

Like most fairings, this one was made in Germany. Many German porcelain concerns had lines of inexpensive fairings, but certainly the most prolific was Conta and Boehme of Pössneck in Saxony.

The firm was established in 1790, specializing in small porcelain pieces such as dolls' heads and, from about 1855-1860, in these fairground trinkets. The subject matter of the figural groups varied from the most innocent (children, pigs, dogs, simple puns) to the frankly ribald (naughty frolics and dirty jokes). Sometimes, the figures would lampoon contemporary politics or society with caricatures or scenes which were considered timely or humorous. The ladies on their bicycles that we see here are demonstrative of that theme.

Figure of the Day: A Victorian Fairing, 19th C.

Porcelain Fairing
Germany, 19th C.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Fairings were small porcelain objects (boxes, little cups, vases, etc) of a figural design which were given out as prizes and trinkets at village fairs in Victorian England.  They’re relatively difficult to come by these days since they weren’t really as appreciated at the time as they are today.

The body of this Nineteenth Century fairing is of white porcelain with two figures on the base. One shows a seated man in a dressing gown and night-cap while the other is depicts a woman in casual day attire and a hat, carrying a folded umbrella.  A wee chest of drawers stands behind the figures. The front of the base is outlined in gilding, inscribed with “Missus is Master.”  Ha!

This, like most of the fairings used at British fairs was made in Germany.  Of the factories making them by far the most prolific was Conta and Boehme of Pössneck in Saxony. The subjects of these pieces vary from the innocent (playing children or animals or puns) to the saucy (bedroom frolics or the purely suggestive).

Sculpture of the Day: "Filch" from "The Beggar's Opera," 1920

Arnold Pilbeam as Filch from "The Beggar's Opera," 1920
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This Staffordshire figure by an unknown artist depicts early Twentieth Century actor Arnold Pilbeam as the character of “Filch” from Nigel Playfair's celebrated revival of John Gay's “The Beggar's Opera” which opened at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in June of 1920.  The production was designed by Claud Lovat Fraser with music re-written and supplemented by Frederic Austin.  This ballad opera featuring traditional tunes and took London by storm.

The revival ran for over three years to much acclaim and its popularity spawned a surprising number of figurines in porcelain and wax representing moments from the show.  This figure is an excellent example of the type of souvenirs produced during the run of the show.  Here, the character stands in a lime green full-length coat much like the actual costume worn in the show.