Dovecote (one of a pair)
ca. 1750–60
Medium
Lead-glazed earthenware (creamware)
Dimensions
Height: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Pottery
Culture
British, Staffordshire
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1940
Accession Number
40.171.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming dovecote, crafted in Staffordshire around 1750–60, exemplifies the playful yet refined decorative ceramics popular in mid-eighteenth-century Britain. Made of lead-glazed earthenware known as creamware, the piece captures a miniature architectural form traditionally used to house pigeons. Its modest scale—standing just over nine inches tall—suggests it was intended as a mantelpiece ornament or conversation piece rather than a functional structure. Thomas Whieldon, whose innovative workshop influenced this style, helped elevate Staffordshire pottery through his experiments with gl...
About the Artist
Whieldon type
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...