Lady
ca. 1765–68
Medium
Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions
2 1/2 × 1 in. (6.4 × 2.5 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
British, Chelsea-Derby
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964
Accession Number
64.101.645
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the delicate "Lady," a petite soft-paste porcelain figurine by the Derby Porcelainufactory around 1765–68. Standing just 2½ × 1 inches, this enchanting Chelsea-Derby piece captures the elegance of an 18th-century woman miniature form. Soft-paste porcelain, a prized British innovation blending white clay with ground glass and fired at lower temperatures, for the translucent glow and fine detailing that made these objects coveted luxuries. Produced during the height of Britain's porcelain boom, Derby's works emulated elite European makers like Meissen while infusing a distinctly English ...
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 ...