figure
- Museum number
- 1936,0715.7.CR
- Description
-
Figure group of 'The Russian Shepherd'; soft-paste biscuit porcelain; three parts; oval stand adorned with pendant flower garlands in relief between four scroll pediments in neo-classical style forming the 'feet'; figure of a youth in belted tunic seated on a rock playing a pipe; figure of bearded man seated on rock playing a balalaika, beside a girl holding up her long scarf and leaning on his right shoulder; rocky mound of each figure section decorated with applied flowers and moss and hollow underside; base of youth pierced by two circular holes and central plug if clay shows where it was attached to base; figure sections interlock with rest of stand; incised marks.
- Production date
- 1790-1795
- Dimensions
-
Height: 34 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Dawson 1987
Based on an engraving by J. B. Tillard after the painting by J. B. Le Prince known as 'Les Bergers Russes'. According to William Bemrose in 'Bow, Chelsea and Derby Porcelain' (London, 1898, p. 75, and see pl. VIII), this group is no. 387 in the list of moulds and models belonging to the estate of the late Mr. Duesbury in 1795.
For details of the career of J. J. Spängler (1755-after 1795), see Clifford, 1978. This authority illustrates a centrepiece modelled by J. V. Sonnenschein for the dinner service for Kloster Einsiedeln made at the Zurich factory, the base of which bears a close similarity to that of the Russian Shepherd group. In a footnote, a 'Piping Shepherd off Russian Shepherd Group' is also mentioned as Spängler's work. This group appeared on the London market in 1977. Another was sold at Sotheby's, 18 May 1982, lot 136.
The Museum collection includes a figure of a shepherdess by a gate and a smaller pair of figures called 'The Dead Bird' which are also fine examples of Spängler's work at Derby. However, this group represents his most complex and daring composition. No other example is known although an uncredited group was illustrated in the 'Connoisseur' vol. LXXXII (1928), p. 30, no. I. The Museum collection includes about sixty examples of Derby biscuit porcelain.
Literature: T. Clifford, 'J. J. Spängler, a virtuoso Swiss modeller at Derby', Connoisseur, vol. 198, no. 196, June 1978, pp. 146-155, fig. 4 a and b.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1987 Jun 10-Jun 15, London, International Ceramics Fair and Seminar Ltd, 'International Ceramics Fair and Seminar'
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Les Bergers Russes
- Acquisition date
- 1936
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1936,0715.7.CR