This figure is usually described as a Turk but in fact derives from a rather uncommon Meissen model of a ‘Persian’ from a series of six Oriental figures modelled at Meissen by J.J. Kaendler in around 1750.[i]

This model does not appear in the London porcelain factories of Chelsea or Bow, but does occur in Longton Hall, Staffordshire salt-glazed stoneware and the Liverpool porcelain factories of Philip Christian and Samuel Gilbody.[ii] This suggests that they had their own source of Meissen figures in Staffordshire from some local patron and presumably there was some close relationship between the factories producing these figures which is not completely understood today. It seems that the Gilbody figure copies the Meissen directly rather than the Longton Hall version. Given the rarity of this Meissen figure it is surprising to see it so widely copied but perhaps the existence of one single figure in the Midlands was responsible for all the copies.[iii]

Condition:
Neck restored

Provenance:
The Price Glover Collection of Fine English Pottery; Christie’s London, 14 June 1988, lot 110

The Stanley F. Goldfein Collection

References:

Grigsby 1990
Leslie B. Grigsby, English Pottery 1650-1800: The Henry H. Weldon Collection, (Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, 1990)

Manners 2018
Errol Manners, Meissen and England – the Baroque Influence, in Fire and Form – The Baroque and its influence on British Ceramics 1660-1760, (The English Ceramic Circle 2018)

White 2024
Mary White, People at the Whites’ House, Whites’ house Ceramic Collection Five, 2024

Price: £3,800

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[i] For another example, see Grigsby 1990 p. 469, no. 300 and for the example from the Lomax collection see Christie’s, London, 10 October 1988, lot 116.

[ii] White 2024 pp. 71- 73

[iii] Manners 2018 p. 38 figs 25-29