Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 149
A Derby white figure of Kitty Clive, circa 1750-52
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£3,000 - £4,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A Derby white figure of Kitty Clive, circa 1750-52
In the role of 'Mrs Riot' from David Garrick's farce Lethe, modelled standing wearing a lace cap and with a ruff at her neck, her bodice and cuffs trimmed with lace ruffles, holding her wide panniered dress with her left hand, the hem incised with fringing, a small spaniel tucked under her right arm, raised on a distinctive star-shaped base, 23cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Bonhams, 10 September 2008, lot 210
With Simon Spero, 2008
Literature
White, Peter, 'Two distinct early Derby white groups of figures and some quandaries', ECC Trans, Vol.25, 2014, pp.165-6 and 169, figs.1, 5 and 10
White, Mary, People at the Whites' House, Vol.5, 2024, p.65, fig.a
Whilst the ultimate source of this celebrated figure is a mezzotint by Charles Mosley, published in 1750 after a watercolour by Thomas Worlidge, the Derby version appears to have copied the contemporary Bow model, see lot 148 in this sale. Whilst a Derby attribution for this figure has been questioned, chemical analysis of this figure undertaken in 2011 has confirmed that the composition is indeed consistent with Derby, see Peter White, 2014, pp.168-73, where the distinctions between this figure and 'Dry-Edge' models is also discussed.
A Derby version is illustrated alongside the Bow version by Rosalie Wise Sharp, Ceramics: Ethics & Scandal, 2002, p.127, and China to Light Up a House, Vol.1, 2015, p.30, nos.124 and 126, where the author speculates that the Derby version may have been cast directly from the Bow version, as it is slightly smaller. Another is illustrated by Peter Bradshaw, Derby Porcelain Figures, 1990, p.20, no.A9 and also by Bernard Watney, 'A Hare, A Ram, Two Putti and Associated Figures', EEC Trans, Vol.8, Pt.2, 1972, pl.183c. See also the very rare pair of Kitty Clive and Henry Woodward illustrated by Dennis G Rice, Derby Porcelain, 1983, p.87, fig.21.