Museum number
2019.161
Object
Figure of a cook, female, Bow Porcelain Factory, soft-paste porcelain, c.1765
Description
he in pale-blue turban, blue lined pale-yellow jacket, white apron and pink flowered breeches, holding a circular dish with two birds, his companion in lace cap, pale pink-lined yellow dress, white bodice and apron and a flowered skirt, holding a ham, both standing on circular bases applied with flowers. 6 1/2 in high
Materials
soft-paste porcelain
On display?
No

Further description

Simple name
figurine/sculptural group
Dimensions
15.6cm (h) x 8.2cm (w)
Founded in the mid-1740s, the Bow factory, located in Bow, now East London, was the first English manufacturer to make porcelain on a commercial scale. Bow porcelain was largely aimed at the middle-classes. Famous for its imitations of imported Chinese and Japanese porcelain, the factory also produced some of the earliest full-length figures in English porcelain. From the 1760s the quality declined and the factory closed around 1774. The factory’s legacy lives on as its use of bone ash in the manufacture of porcelain evolved into what we know as English bone china.

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