Vintage Pair Of Hand Painted Staffordshire Mantle Dogs With Glass Eyes Rare

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Seller: gadgetsguy52 ✉️ (3,079) 99.8%, Location: Redhill, Surrey, GB, Ships to: GB & many other countries, Item: 166622890905 Vintage Pair Of Hand Painted Staffordshire Mantle Dogs With Glass Eyes Rare.

Vintage Pair Of Hand Painted Staffordshire Mantle Dogs With Glass Eyes Rare.

Both in excellent condition as seen in the photos

They both have glass eyes which is incredibly hard to find these days.

Item Title: 
Staffordshire Pottery Pair Dogs Glass Eyes 

Creator:  
Unknown maker. 

Materials and Techniques: 
Clay, then moulded, hand modeled, glazed then using a low fire process with gilding. Glass eyes applied after firing. 

Marks: 
Unsigned 

Of the Period: 
Victorian era 19th century. 

Date of Approximate Manufacture: 
c.1880 

Place of Origin: 
Staffordshire, United Kingdom, England 

Measurements: 
10 5/8” height 
8.5” width 
4” depth 

Weight: 
5lb. 12oz. Total weight. Not including shipping materials. 

Condition: 
Very good used condition. Along with the usual wear to the gilding on both dogs. Crazing throughout the bodies of both dogs. All commensurate with age and use

Staffordshire dog figurines are matching pairs of pottery spaniel dogs, standing guard, which were habitually placed on mantelpieces in 19th-century homes. Mainly manufactured in Staffordshire pottery, these earthenware figures were also made in other English counties and in Scotland. They are also known as hearth spaniels or fireplace dogs as they were positioned on top of the mantelpiece. Many other breeds were produced, particularly the greyhound, though the spaniels were especially popular and this is attributed to royalty favouring the King Charles Spaniel breed. In Scotland, they were colloquially termed Wally dugs and were manufactured in bulk at potteries in places such as Pollokshaws in Glasgow and Portobello near Edinburgh

Though the most popular, the dogs were only one of many types of Staffordshire figures; other animals and human figures of various kinds were also popular.

The spaniels were seated in pairs, decorated with a gold chain and locket, and with a creamy white base coat. The Staffordshire spaniel was the quintessential Victorian bourgeois status-symbol ornament: no mantelpiece was complete without a pair of spaniels standing guard. Staffordshire dogs were also placed on the window sill. Staffordshire dogs are nowadays collectors’ items. Since the 1720s, spaniels had been produced by pottery factories in Staffordshire. The quality of the modeling and painting of the Staffordshire dogs may differ. As the popularity of the figurines increased towards the end of the 19th century, the quality began to decline. Thousands were manufactured but originals in good condition and in their correct pairs are now uncommon. The figures continued to be made until the 1920s and early models are of the better quality. However, reproductions were still being manufactured in 2009.

The spaniels come in sizes from a little over a foot to a few inches high. They were all decorated by hand, that is why all the figurines are different. The Staffordshire mantel dog's expression can be soft or fierce, deplorable or self-satisfied, inquisitive or pleased. The base coat is layered over with polka dots or brushed patches of rust, copper luster, or black. Disraeli spaniels feature painted curls on their foreheads; Jackson spaniels are entirely black. Some have glass eyes, some painted. The most frequent model features front legs moulded to the body; rarer models have one or two distinct front legs.

A less common group of dog figurines do have utilitarian purposes, serving also as spill vases, ring holders, banks, and jars. The mantelpiece figures came to be made in varying sizes, sometimes numbered 1 to 6 underneath, encouraging buyers to get sats ranked by size.

Children as young as seven or eight years were paid two shillings a week to paint the gold chains often included on the spaniels in the 1800s.

Spaniel figures continue to be made. In the United States, the 1952 Supreme Court case F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Contemporary Arts, Inc. concerned copyright infringement regarding the design for a cocker spaniel figure.

Similar dog figures were made elsewhere - the early Staffordshire examples often imitated types they knew from Chinese export porcelain, and the Staffordshire types were exported to and eventually imitated by other English-speaking markets. But the mantelpiece pair as an iconic feature remained a British phenomenon.

The Staffordshire spaniel is tied to the history of the King Charles Spaniel. These spaniels became great favourites of the British monarchs. King Charles I (1600–1649) had a spaniel as a young boy. Owing to Queen Victoria’s spaniel Dash (1830-40), however, the spaniel model enjoyed a surge in popularity in the 1840s which lasted through her reign. Not all dog models were based solely on the spaniel. You can also find other Staffordshire dog breeds, such as pugs, afghans, greyhounds, collies, poodles, and Dalmatians.

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  • Condition: Used
  • Brand: Unbranded
  • Type: Figurine
  • Theme: Dogs
  • Material: Glass
  • Features: Hand Painted
  • Subject: Dog

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