The Town Crier

Stock No: 001907

Height: 7 Inches / 18 cm

Reference: Myrna Schkolne Staffordshire Figures 1780 to 1840 Vol 1, Page 245, Fig 29.43

A very rare and desirable pearlware figure depicting a Town Crier. A well dressed gentleman stands on a painted square base, a tree stump to his rear, he is holding up a large bell in his right hand, his left raised to his waist, his palm up turned. The Town Crier or Bell Man, is wearing a tricorn hat, waistcoat, breaches, an open long overcoat, stockings and shoes. Similar figures have been recorded standing with and without a side scroll. A remarkable survivor of the long held British tradition of declaring public announcements dating back hundreds of years, and still continued to this day in towns and cities up and down the United Kingdom. This example was made in Staffordshire, England in the 1820’s. The figure has a restored left hand and repair at the neck, they have been done to a very high standard. This is the actual figure recorded and illustrated in Myrna Schkolne’s book, to my knowledge only the second other pre-Victorian example of its type recorded, one other similar figure can be found in the Willett collection, housed in the Brighton and Hove Museum.

Provenance: From the collection of the late Malcolm Hodkinson.