An important St James's (Charles Gouyn) figure of a man, circa 1749-52

Footnotes

This figure is modelled after an engraving by the Venetian engraver Jacopo Amigoni (about 1685-1752), in which the gentleman is seen offering a large fish to his female companion. Amigoni was in England between 1729 and 1739, during which time he provided printed designs used on Worcester porcelain and Battersea enamels. His series of engravings of 'The Elements' were translated into the Girl in a Swing figure groups of 'Water' and 'Air'; a pair in the Kulturhistoriska Museum in Lund, Sweden (accession no. K.M.26.258), is illustrated by Arthur Lane and R J Charleston, Girl in a Swing Porcelain and Chelsea, ECC Trans., Vol.5, Pt.3 (1962), pl.130.

Both of the standing figures from these two groups were also issued as single figures; see Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain (1987), pp.46-7. The known examples of this figure are recorded by Arthur Lane and R J Charleston (1962), cat. nos.9 and 15. A pair of these figures, formerly in the Lady Shelley-Rolls Collection, is illustrated by Rosalie Wise Sharp, Ceramics: Ethics and Scandal (2002), p.67. Another coloured pair was in the Simon Goldblatt Collection, sold by Sotheby's on 1 May 1956, lot 42. A version from the Katz Collection is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, accession no. 1988.786, and another single figure was sold by Sotheby's on 20 March 1956, lot 92.