Pair of Staffordshire Pottery Seated Cats on Cushions

Details

Description

Staffordshire Pottery Cats on Cushions, Pair of Black and White Seated Figures, Circa 1860
Circa 1850–1870

Each cat is modeled … Read more Staffordshire Pottery Cats on Cushions, Pair of Black and White Seated Figures, Circa 1860
Circa 1850–1870

Each cat is modeled seated upright on a rectangular cushion, the pair in mirror image with tails curled around their haunches. The white-glazed bodies are boldly patched in black, with black ears and finely painted faces: round yellow eyes with black pupils and lined lids, arched brows, a peach-toned muzzle dotted and whiskered in black, and a red mouth. Each wears a thin luster collar tied in a painted bow at the throat. The cushions are washed in green with painted creasing and a rose-pink fringed border, and the figures are press-molded and hollow, the open bases with unglazed rims, unmarked.

At 7½ inches high the pair suits a mantelshelf, a pair of bookcase shelves or a console, set facing one another as they were intended to be shown. The black, green and rose palette reads clearly against paneling, a painted overmantel or a papered wall, and the figures sit comfortably with English pottery, tole and other 19th-century mantel ornaments.

Dimensions
Height: 7½ inches (19.1 cm)
Width: 3¾ inches (9.5 cm)
Depth: 3 inches (7.6 cm)

Provenance
Pennsylvania private collection
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Inc.

Condition
Good

Historical Context
Cats seated on cushions were among the mantelpiece ornaments produced in quantity in the Staffordshire Potteries through the middle decades of the 19th century, made as true pairs to flank a chimneypiece. They are considerably scarcer than the comforter spaniels that dominated the trade, and well-painted pairs that have remained together, as here, are sought after by collectors.

(Ref: NY11252-irc) See less