figure
- Museum number
- 2005,0103.1
- Description
-
Figure group, biscuit porcelain, moulded, of Queen Charlotte seated at the right on a chair covered with a fur-trimmed robe wearing a low-cut dress with two strands of pearls from which hangs a portrait in relief of the King over her left breast; on her lap is Princess Augusta in a bonnet holding a teething coral in her left hand; at her left is the Princess Royal kneeling, in a long low cut dress with two sashes at the back, one falling over her right side. She holds the baby's right hand in her left. At the back is a shaped pedestal ornamented in relief with a ram's head and pendent laurel swags, supporting a vase in classical style. The figures rest on an octagonal waisted base ornamented with laurel swags and a mask on each side and a laurel wreath at each corner. The base is flat with a central circular hole.
- Production date
- 1773 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 23.60 centimetres (max height)
-
Width: 15.90 centimetres (max width)
- Curator's comments
- Perhaps the group advertised by Stonor and Evans in Connoisseur, May 1908, mentioned by T.P.P. Clifford in 'Chelsea-Derby Royal Family Groups', Burlington Magazine, September 1985, supplement pp 12-15. A group with Amor is illustrated in Frd. W. Burgess, Old Pottery and Porcelain', London, 1916, facing p. 107.
Research in the Royal Collection in September 2005 revealed that the BM group belonged to Queen Mary and was swapped in 1924 for one with a pedestal through Albert Amor. There is also a coloured group of the same model in the Royal Collection.
Modelled after 'George III, Queen Charlotte and their six eldest children' by Johann Zoffany, 1770. The vase at the back is not in the painting. In the painting the Queen wears a Vandyke ruff.
See also 1887,0307.II300 for a Derby figure of George III.
This group is one of three relating to the Zoffany painting, see Felicity Marno 'A Derby Bust of George III' in ECC Transactions Vol 19 Part 3 on p.529, Fig.4. . The three groups were listed in the catalogue of 'Messrs Duesbury & Co. Proprietors of the Derby and Chelsea Porcelaine Manufacturies' issued in 1773 for the opening of their London showroom. The group was probably modelled by John Bacon after the engraving of Zoffany's pianting by Richard Earlom, see 1939,0211.4 and Q,2.6. For the complete set of three in the Royal Collection, see https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/-6/collection/37021/the-four-eldest-sons-of-george-iii-george-iv-when-prince-of-wales-with-princes and https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/-7/collection/37022/queen-charlotte-with-princess-augusta-and-princess-charlotte-the-princess (accessed 30 April 2021).
According to Peter Bradshaw this group and the other two are probably nos. 22, 23, and 24 in the Bemrose list, where they are described as 'Fragments of the Royal family'. The groups were listed in the Derby Sale catalogue in June 1773.
- Location
- On display (G46/dc18)
- Condition
- The group was restored in the BM after acquisition (2005-6).
- Acquisition date
- 2005
- Acquisition notes
- Sold at Sotheby's, 2 December 2004, lot 47. The Museum was the underbidder through E & H Manners.
Said to have come from a British private collection.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 2005,0103.1