Museum number
2019.163
Object
The Group of the Fortune Teller, Bow Porcelain Factory, soft-paste porcelain, c.1752
Description
modelled as a bearded gallant, a berried wreath in his hair in a pink and iron-red lined yellow coat, pale turquoise breeches and black boots, his companion with dressed brown hair, a dark-green bodice with an applied wreath of flowers and a pale-pink dress, standing on a rectangular rockwork base applied with a blue flower with green leaves. [The painting perhaps a later date] 9 1/2 in high
Materials
soft-paste porcelain
On display?
No

Further description

Simple name
figurine/sculptural group
Dimensions
17cm (h) x 14cm (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.

Please help us improve our records. Let us know if there are any errors by writing to curators@holburne.org