Description:
‘The Sailor’s Farewell’ or ‘the Sailor and his Lass’, was an enduringly popular subject for prints and songs well into the 19th century. English creamware figurine known as the "Sailor's Lass" or "Companion" who is dressed as a country maid wearing a hat and her right hand on her hip and her left hand clutching a handkerchief to her breast, and is standing on a small, circular rocky hill She forms a pair with the figure commonly called the "Sailor" (HD 2006.33.104.1). Popular prints illustrating the exploits of a sailor and his lady love were published in several series during the period. This pair illustrates the theme of the "Sailor's Farewell" where a sailor takes his leave of a grieving girl. Finely press-molded examples of this pair also done in pearlware, which are in a number of collections, may have been made by John Wood of Brownhill or the Ralph and Enoch Wood partnership in Burslem, Staffordshire. John Wood's sales ledger includes an entry for "30 May 1783 to Mr. Joseph Tidmarsh [...] 6 Sailor & c." An invoice in the Wedgwood Archives lists a 16 November 1783 sale of "12 [pairs of] Sailors Lasses" by Ralph Wood (then in partnership with Enoch Wood) to Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood; and according to John Wood's account book, he records 6 October to Mr. Tho Dickins "3 pair Sailor & Lasses coloured 2.6d." However, this pair is not as finely molded, and both have glazed, hollow interiors as opposed to the unglazed interiors found on Wood figures.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.33.104.2 |
