Pair of English Pearlware Cupid and Torchbearer Figural Candlesticks, Attributed to Neale & Co. Or Wilson

Details

Description

Pair of English Pearlware Cupid and Torchbearer Figural Candlesticks, Attributed to Neale & Co. or Wilson
Circa 1800

Attributed to … Read more Pair of English Pearlware Cupid and Torchbearer Figural Candlesticks, Attributed to Neale & Co. or Wilson
Circa 1800

Attributed to Neale & Co. or Wilson, Church Works, Hanley, Staffordshire

This pair of English pearlware pottery candlesticks is modeled as winged putti, each standing with a leaf-molded candle sconce balanced upon the head, and is finely painted in enamel colors.

The first figure is Cupid, the archer. He stands with a bow in his lowered hand, the other hand raised to the black strap across his chest that carries a brown quiver of arrows at his hip. His companion, the Torchbearer, is longer-haired and draped from the shoulder, and holds a flaming torch across the body, its yellow flame rising at the shoulder. The torch is the attribute of Hymen, god of marriage, and the two were probably intended as Love and Marriage.

Both figures wear sashes of soft pink edged in green, and their wings are picked out in puce above turquoise feathers penciled in puce. The fluted sconces are painted with green leaves beneath wavy rims feathered in brown, above rope-twist collars. Each figure stands on a round pink mound raised on a square stepped plinth, molded with a band of fluting picked out in turquoise green, with iron-red florets at the corners and brown line borders.

At just over nine inches high, the pair suits a mantelpiece, a dressing table or a bookshelf, and sits well among other English pottery or against painted paneling. As emblems of love and marriage, the candlesticks also make an apt wedding or anniversary present.

Dimensions
Height: 9¼ inches (23.5 cm)
Width: 3¼ inches (8.3 cm)
Depth: 3¼ inches (8.3 cm)

Marks: Each is marked on the underside with two brown painted dabs (painter's marks) and an impressed number. There is no factory mark.

Provenance: Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition: Good antique condition. The bow has been off and reattached, an old professional repair that is invisible; otherwise the enamel colors remain bright and the modeling crisp.

References
Myrna Schkolne, Staffordshire Figures 1780 to 1840, Volume 4 (Schiffer Publishing, 2014), page 211, figure 197.90, for the torchbearer model, there described as a female putto, and figure 197.91, for the archer model, illustrated without its sconce.
Myrna Schkolne, Neale & Co. and Wilson Figures: A Photo Index (2026), for the history of the Church Works.
Diana Edwards, Neale Pottery and Porcelain: Its Predecessors and Successors 1763–1820 (Barrie & Jenkins, 1987).

Historical Context
The London merchant James Neale took over Humphrey Palmer's Church Works at Hanley, Staffordshire, in 1778 and, as Neale & Co., made earthenware figures whose crisp modeling and delicate enameling rivaled porcelain. His manager and later partner Robert Wilson bought the works in 1789, the partnership ended in 1792, and the Wilson family carried on in the same manner until 1817. Unmarked figures in this refined style, with its turquoise and puce palette, have long been attributed to the factory, and without a mark cannot be divided between Neale and Wilson. They belong to the generation of enamel-painted pearlware figures that, from about 1780, succeeded the colored-glaze figures of the Whieldon and Ralph Wood type.

Cupid and Hymen, love and marriage, were a favorite pairing in Georgian decorative art. Schkolne illustrates the archer without his sconce and suggests that a fluted one once sat on the head; the present pair retains both.

(Ref: NY08402-kur) See less