Antique Staffordshire pottery pearlware figure of Doctor Syntax early 19thc

Dated: 1820 Staffordshire england

A rare fine quality antique pottery figure group of Doctor Syntax playing at cards. The figure is Obadiah Sherratt type from Staffordshire and was made around the 1820 period. This figure is one of the most detailed and largest examples of Dr.Syntax figures and is exceptionally well produced with wonderful bright enamels and a good pearlware glaze. Doctor Syntax was a comical figure brought to life by Rowlandson and based on the fictional stories by William Combe. Syntax was the equivalant in his time, to say the Simpsons today! Several figures were produced by the Staffordshire potters based on Rowland's popular cartoons.

Dimensions: 8.5 inches high

Current Condition: Minor professional and invisible restoration to some extremeties, mans arm holding card, handle on small jug and goblet, Syntax's pigtail is replaced.

Literature: Doctor Syntax at a Card Party appears in the Third Tour of Doctor Syntax published in 1821. A similar group with the two figures reversed is in the Willett Collection in Brighton, illustrated by Myrna Schkolne, People, Passions, Pastimes and Pleasures (2006), p.193 top. See also Rosalie Wise Sharp, Ceramics, Ethics and Scandal (2002), p.113, and Jonathan Horne, 1986 catalogue, part VI, fig 160.

£5750    $6612