Introducing a comprehensive, multi-volume work that catalogs the enormous range of enamel-painted figures made predominantly in the Staffordshire Potteries between 1780 and 1840, Volume 1 covers figures portraying people's pastimes and work. It includes over 900 brilliant color photos of pottery, as well as information about its makers and design sources and a guide to values. The attributes of all known makers' work are explored, as are those of groups of related figures whose makers remain anonymous. Some figures in this volume portray the pastimes of gardening, reading, and music, while others depict shepherds and shepherdesses, other farm workers, vendors, and people engaged in a host of trades and occupations. Many of these figures are hauntingly beautiful and have long been hidden from the public eye. Fashioned in an era before photography, they give us rare glimpses of a world that has vanished. To hold one is to touch the past. AUTHOR: Myrna Schkolne is an independent scholar of early English earthenware figures, and she lectures and publishes in her field. She resides in the United States but maintains an ongoing dialogue with collectors worldwide through her web site, www.mystaffordshirefigures.com.
