Figure of a Gardener

c. 1765–70

Figure of a Gardener, c. 1765–70. Bow Porcelain Factory (British). Soft-paste porcelain; overall: 24.5 cm (9 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. M. Luntz 1945.37 Even though this figure and his counterpart (1945.36) are not accompanied by a sheep, these ceramic sculptures were sometimes known as “Garland Shepherds” during the mid-1700s. The name derived from a similar set produced by one of the Bow Porcelain Factory’s rivals, the Derby Porcelain Factory, in which the male figure holds a lamb. While these two factories often produced similar sets of pastoral, allegorical, biographical, and religious figures, the Bow Factory was known as one of the preeminent porcelain manufacturers, rivaled only by the Chelsea Porcelain Factory, with which Bow would later merge. Due to the abundance of grapes, pears, plums, and other fall fruits spilling from the figure’s basket, this Gardener has also been considered a personification of Autumn.