Description

A multitude of colourful and naive biblical and other religious pottery figures found their way into Victorian homes. These were not for the well-off middle classes but for tradesmen, shopkeepers, clerks and teachers and for the more skilled, and hence slightly better off, working classes. This book tells the story of, illustrates and catalogues these Staffordshire pottery figures from the Victorian period which sold in their thousands to go on the mantelshelves of Christian families, both protestant and Catholic. Three chapters of social history tell the Victorian religious context, assess who were the main purchasers of the figures, and draw on wider research regarding the Victorian home and how it was furnished and decorated, to show why these figures were an attraction. These are followed by four chapters on the figures themselves: Old Testament, New Testament, other religious themes and finally portraits of preachers. An inclusive full colour catalogue of figures completes the book. Whilst some of these figures have been illustrated in ceramic books before, this is the first title to provide a comprehensive record of Victorian religious figures. It is important in that it places them in the context of their times. AUTHOR: Stephen Duckworth has been collecting in this specialist area for 40 years. He has a long association with the Staffordshire Figure Association in the USA and speaks regularly at its annual meetings. In Britain he is a member of the English Ceramic Circle (ECC) and Northern Ceramic Society (NCS). Stephen has given papers to the former on pottery religious figures and on preacher ceramics, which have been published in the ECC Transactions 2012 and 2013. He has also spoken on this subject to the NCS and to heritage and religious groups. His research for the book has involved spending much time in the British Library, as well as attending a Birkbeck College course on the Victorian Home. Stephen Duckworth has lived in west London for 50 years. His first collection mentors were the Staffordshire pottery dealers then in Portobello Road and Kensington Church Street. As a lifelong Methodist, he is trustee of one of the church’s major UK heritage sites: The New Room in Bristol which is the oldest Methodist chapel in the world. SELLING POINTS: . The first title to collect a comprehensive record of Victorian religious figures . Places each figure in the context of its time . Contains detailed descriptions of many rare, very rare and collectable figures 368 colour, 18 b/w images