Bow Factory - David Garrick in Costume

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Bow Factory (English, 17441774), David Garrick in Costume, ca. 1760, porcelain, bequest of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Cleaver, 1991.342

Active from 1747 until the American Revolution, the successful and innovative Bow porcelain factory was a key proponent of English rococo. Called “New Canton” after the Canton factory in China after which it was fashioned, the firm copied and varied forms and techniques of Chinese and Japanese ceramics then abundant in Europe; around 1750, it began to produce the country’s first full-length porcelain figures with subjects derived from Oriental and German Meissen originals and from prints and portraits of London theatrical characters. This gilt and brightly-colored turbaned Turk on a raised scroll-molded base is typical of Bow’s practice after 1760, produced either singly or in a group meant to enact a miniature entertainment for a festive dining table. Although labeled as one of the factory’s many portraits of David Garrick (1717–1779), one of the century’s greatest thespians, it bears no immediate resemblance to other identifiable Bow Garricks.

Barbara C. Buenger

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Bow Factory - David Garrick in Costume