The Fortune Teller

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Title/s

The Fortune Teller

Maker/s

Bow Porcelain Manufactory (factory)

'The Muses Modeller' (modeller)

Aveline, Pierre Alexandre after (printer) [ULAN info: French artist, 1702-1760]

Boucher, François after (painter) [ULAN info: French artist, 1703-1770]

Category

porcelain
soft-paste porcelain

Name

figure group

School/Style

Rococo

Description

Soft-paste porcelain containing bone ash, figure group of The Fortune Teller, press-moulded, and painted overglaze in polychrome enamels, and gilt.

Soft-paste porcelain containing bone ash, figure group of The Fortune Teller, press-moulded, and painted over lead-glaze in very pale greyish-blue, turquoise-green, green, pale yellow, orange, dark pink, puce, and black enamels, and gilt. The figures stand side by side on a low rocky base which rises up in the centre of the back to support them. The bearded fortune teller stands on the left with feet apart, bending over the right hand of the young woman, which he holds by the wrist in his left hand. The girl stands on the right with her left arm by her side, holding a now missing object. Between them is a rectangular object, perhaps a book. The fortune teller wears a wreath of leaves and berries on his head, a dark pink coat with yellow lining, turquoise breeches, and black boots with a gold border at the top. She has three flowers on top of her head, and wears a petticoat decorated with turquoise flowers and puce and gold leaves, a yellow open robe with an orange stomacher and cuffs, and a trailing garland of flowers and leaves passing over her right shoulder and diagonally across her back to her waist. The visible shoe is orange. There are two areas of green on the back of the base.

Production Notes

The group was derived from a print announced in the Mercure in April, 1738 by Pierre Aveline (1702-60) after the painting La Bonne Aventure designed by François Boucher (1703-77) for a Beauvais tapestry in the series 'The Italian Village Scenes'. A copy of the etched and engraved print is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (E.213-1889, Print Room, Box F.5.a). However, as the Bow figures are not transposed as they are in the print, it is possible that they were derived from a drawing or from a painted copy of the original. See Documentation.

Production Place

Stratford-le-Bow (factory) (place)

Essex (factory) (county)

England (factory) (country)

English (factory) (nationality)

France (printer)

France (painter)

Technique Description

Soft-paste porcelain containing bone ash, press-moulded, and painted overglaze in polychrome enamels, and gilt

Dimensions

height: (girl): 17.1 cm
length: (whole): 14.2 cm

Period

mid-18th Century
George II

Date

circa 1755 to 1760

Provenance

given: Dickson, W.D., Mrs 1950 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection)

Unknown before donor, Mrs W.D. (Frances Louisa) Dickson, Bournemouth

Given by Mrs W.D. Dickson

Inscriptions/Marks

1. mark
   Position: on the right side of the base
   Method: painted in pale greyish-brown enamel
   Description: a dagger and anchor
   Interpretation: factory mark
   

Documentation

1. Poole, Julia (1986) Plagiarism Personified? European Pottery and Porcelain Figures, Cambridge (Cambs.): The Fitzwilliam Museum [page: pp. 40-1]
   [comments: Publ. pp. 40-1, F11]
2. Hurlbutt, Frank (1926) Bow Porcelain, London: G. Bell & Sons [page: p. 115]
   [comments: Publ. p. 115, pl. 42]
3. Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle, [page: p. 6] 1960)
   [comments: Ref. A painted copy of the original, is illustrated in pl. 16; the printed source pl. 17 Cf. A white example then in the E.M.H. Cross Collection, see p. 6, no. 7 and pl. 15]
4. Pierette, Jean-Richard (1978) L'oeuvre gravé de François Boucher dans la collection Edmond de Rothschild, Colmar, Paris [page: p. 82]
   [comments: Ref. The possible printed source of the design see p. 82, no. 223 and pl. p. 84.]
5. Bradshaw, Peter (1992) Bow Porcelain Figures circa 1748-1774, London: Barrie & Jenkins [page: pp. 42, 91]
   [comments: Ref. This model is A49 in Bradshaw's list of Bow figures, see p. 91. For the mark, see pp. 42-3. He notes that the use of this mark became more common after about 1762. Cf. A coloured example, p. 76, pl. 42]
6. Savage, George (1952) 18th-Century English Porcelain, London: Rockliff Publishing Corporation Limited
   [comments: Cf. A coloured example in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA 61.1282), see pl. 44]
7. Tait, Hugh Some Consequences of the Bow Porcelain Special Exhibition, Part I: The Alderman Arnold Period (Nov 1748-March 1750), [page: pp. 95-6]
   Source title: Apollo (February 1960)
   [comments: Cf. A coloured example in the British Museum, p. 95, fig. IV, the figure, fig. V., the engraving, and p. 96, fig. VI, a detail of the painting.]
8. Stoner, Frank (1955) Chelsea, Bow and Derby Porcelain Figures, Newport (Hants): Ceramic Book Co.
   [comments: Cf. An example, pl. 67]
9. Adams, Elizabeth (1981) Bow Porcelain, London: Faber and Faber [page: pp. 135-6]
   [comments: Cf. A white example, see pl. 70 (Puttick & Simpson), dated to c. 1748-52, and p. 144. See 2nd edition, 1991, p. 136, pl. 70, and p. 135]
10. Gabszewicz, Anton (1982) Bow Porcelain: The Collection formed by Geoffrey Freeman, London: Lund Humphries [page: p. 127]
    [comments: Cf. A coloured example, see p. 127, no. 196. From the Aubrey Toppin collection, sold Sotheby's, 19th May 1970, English Porcelain, lot 1; anonymous, Bonhams, 25th March 1977, lot 73. Exhibited in the English Ceramic Circle Exhibition, 1948, pl. 36, no. 163]
11. Christie's (1983) English Pottery and Porcelain and 19th Century Ceramics, 13th June 1983, London: Christie's [page: p. 32] 13th June 1983)
    [comments: Cf. A coloured example, p. 32, lot 164. Estimate £2-3,000; fetched £2,160 (including buyer's premium).]
12. Sotheby's The Rous Lench Collection, Volume One, English Pottery and Porcelain, London: Sotheby's [page: p. 133] 1 July 1986)
    [comments: Cf. A coloured example, p. 133, lot 188. Fetched £13,200 inc. 10%; sold again Christie's, 18th May 1992, British Ceramics, p. 18, lot 38. Fetched £9,900.]
13. Christie's (1992) British Ceramics, 18th May 1992, London: Christie's [page: p. 18] 18th May 1992)
    [comments: Cf. p. 18, lot 38, sold previously at the Sale of the Rous Lench Collection, 1st July 1986, p. 133]
14. Sotheby's English and Continental Ceramics and Glass, 15th November 1994, [page: pp. 52-3] 15th November 1994)
    [comments: Cf. A coloured example, pp. 52-3, lot 185. Estimate £2-4,000; fetched £6, 325 (including buyer's premium).]
15. Gabszewicz, Anton (2000) Made at New Canton, Bow Porcelain from the Collection of the London Borough of Newham, London: English Ceramic Circle and London Borough of Newham [page: 89]
    [comments: Cf. No. 76, a coloured example, dated c. 1752, formerly sold by Christie's, 13 June 1983, lot 164, and now belonging to the London Borough of Newham.]

Other Notes

A coloured example at Wallington, Cambo (National Trust), no. 158 in house list of ceramics. This has a rectangular diagram on the book between the figures.

Accession Number

C.81-1950 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 42161; Input Date: 2002-02-19 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)