Description
The pearlware figure shows Dr. Syntax being carried ashore at Calais by a Breton Woman.
It was made in Staffordshire England in the early 19th century period. The figure is rare and previously unrecorded in any of the standard references.
NOTE;
William Combe’s The Tour of Doctor Syntax in search of the picturesque was begun in 1809 and published in book form in 1812. Together with the accompanying aquatints by Thomas Rowlandson that inspired the poem, it satirizes the aesthetic ideals lying behind the picturesque and its frequently pompous followers. The poem tells how Dr Syntax, a curate, sets off in search of the ideal picturesque landscape only to be continually thwarted by pathetic and farcical inconveniences. During the course of the poem, the unfortunate Dr. Syntax stumbles into a lake while attempting to reach the perfect location from which to sketch a suitably ruined castle, is chased by a bull and driven to distraction by the incessant bleating of sheep, tied to a tree by highwayman and and in the case of this figure carried to the beach at Calais by a Breton woman.