Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 148
A Bow white figure of Kitty Clive, circa 1750-52
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£4,000 - £6,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A Bow white figure of Kitty Clive, circa 1750-52
In the role of 'Mrs Riot' form David Garrick's farce Lethe, the imposing figure modelled standing wearing a lace cap and frill around her neck, holding a small spaniel under her right arm, her left hand grasping the folds of her voluminous panniered gown, her sleeves and bodice realistically modelled with the folds of drapery hand-modelled and undercut, raised on a high square plinth base delicately moulded with scrollwork on the upper surface and applied with musical and theatrical trophies, 31.5cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Bonhams, 8 September 2010, lot 75
With Simon Spero
Literature
White, Peter, 'Two distinct early Derby white groups of figures and some quandaries', ECC Trans, Vol.25, 2014, p.171, fig.15
White, Mary, People at the Whites' House, Vol.5, 2024, p.65, fig.b
Lethe, or Aesop in the Shades, was David Garrick's first play and premiered in April 1740. The one act play was reworked in 1749 to include the roles of 'The Fine Lady' (Mrs Riot) and 'The Fine Gentleman', the latter famously played by Henry Woodward and forming the companion figure to the present lot, see the example from the Mavis Bimson Collection sold by Bonhams on 14 December 2023, lot 293. Catherine 'Kitty' Clive (1711-1785) took the role of 'Mrs Riot' in this revised version, having first come to fame in 1728 in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. The play and these celebrated figures are discussed in detail by Rosalie Wise Sharp, Ceramics: Ethics & Scandal, 2002, pp.122-9.
The figure of Kitty Clive is based on a mezzotint by Charles Mosley published in 1750, traditionally said to be after an original watercolour by Thomas Worlidge, and was normally modelled on low base to be paired with Henry Woodward. However, a small number were produced with higher bases such as this, see that illustrated by Raymond Yarbrough, Bow Porcelain and the London Theatre, 1996, p.34, fig.51, where the author speculates that the theatrical and musical trophies applied to the front were inspired by Gravelot's 1738 frontispiece to Handel's Alexander's Feast, reproduced as fig.52.
The figures of Kitty were probably sold individually as well as in pairs on low bases. It seems likely that the same modeller responsible for these figures also modelled some of the pug dogs made at Bow, see lot 172 in this sale. Another version on this distinctive high base is in the Fitzwilliam Museum (inv. no.EC.3-1938), incised '1750' on the inside of the base, suggesting that these models pre-date the Derby versions, see lot 149 in this sale. A fine coloured pair of Kitty Clive and Henry Woodward from the Godden Reference Collection was sold by Bonhams on 14 April 2010, lot 88.