Pair of water buffalos with boys
Medium
Tortoiseshell ware
Dimensions
Height (each): 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Pottery
Culture
British, Staffordshire
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, 1941
Accession Number
41.24.1, .2
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming pair of water buffalos boys, crafted around 1750 in Staffordshire, England, exemplifies the whimsical world of 18th-century British ceramics. Attributed to the "Whieldon type" Ralph Wood the Elder—pioneering potters known for their lively earthenware figures—these 7¾-inch-tall sculptures capture a playful pastoral scene. Perched atop sturdy buffalos, the boys evoke rural innocence, blending everyday farm life with a touch of exotic flair, as water buffalos were not native to Britain but symbolized hardy working animals. The medium, tortoiseshell ware, is a hallmark of Staffordsh...
About the Artist
Whieldon type|Ralph Wood the Elder
Whieldon-type is not a single artist but a catalogue attribution used by museums for unmarked mid-18th-century Staffordshire earthenware in the manner of Thomas Whieldon (1719-1795), the celebrated English potter of Fenton Vivian. Whieldon perfected lead-glazed cream-colored earthenware streaked and dappled with metallic oxides - manganese browns, copper greens, cobalt blues - producing the mottle...