Figure of Peace
1790s
Medium/TechniqueTin-glazed earthenware
DimensionsHeight: 75 cm (29 1/2 in.)
Credit LineGift of Robert D. Mussey, Jr. and Carol M. Stocker
Accession number2022.1304
On View
Not on viewClassificationsCeramics
DescriptionThis extremely large and very impressive ceramic figure likely depicts Peace, though some scholars suggest that she may be Innocence. At nearly 30 inches tall, this is believe to be the largest ceramic figure made in the Staffordshire region of England in the hey-day of earthenware pottery production in the mid to late 18th century. The best known of those factories was Josiah Wedgwood’s factory at Burslem which helped to bring pottery into the homes of many middle-class English people. A figure of the same form with different enameled decoration is marked with the stamp of the Wedgwood factory, and while this figure is unmarked, it is possible that they came from the same mold.
ProvenanceSaid to come from a private collection, Minneapolis [see note]. About 2000-2001, sold by a Philadelphia dealer to Robert Mussey, Milton, MA; 2022, gift of Robert Mussey to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 22, 2022)NOTE: According to the dealer at the time of the sale.
early 18th century
Zaccharias Dextra, proprietor of De Drie Vergulde Astonnekens factory
around 1725-1750
about 1740