John Milton
1811/48
Medium
Soft-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels and gilding
Dimensions
H.: 25.4 cm (10 in.)
Classification
porcelain
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
66614
Art Historical Context
This elegant porcelain figure of **John Milton**, produced by the esteemed Derby Porcelain Manufactory between 1811 and 1848, captures the likeness of the renowned 17th-century English poet best known for his epic *Paradise Lost*. Standing 10 inches (25.4 cm) tall, it exemplifies the factory's mastery in creating lifelike sculptural portraits for affluent Regency and early Victorian homes. Derby, one of Britain's leading porcelain centers since the mid-18th century, specialized in soft-paste porcelain—a European innovation blending clay, glass frit, and other materials to mimic the translucen...
About the Artist
Derby Porcelain Manufactory · 1751–1785
The Derby Porcelain Manufactory stands as one of the foundational institutions of British ceramic art, producing some of the finest figures and tablewares made in England during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its origins can be traced to the work of André Planché, a Huguenot immigrant from Saxony who settled in Derby around 1745 and began producing soft-paste porcelain figures and ...