The Greek Slave

At the Exhibition of 1851, Minton's trade name, Parian was in general use for all vitrified unglazed bone china, even though rival companies had invented their own names for the material. Each part of a figure was made in a separate mould. The smooth appearance of the finished figure was admired as much for its technical skill as for its aesthetic qualities. Minton produced over 500 Parian figures between 1845 and 1910.

People

The American sculptor, Hiram Powers (1805-1873) was the son of a Vermont farmer who was fortunate to receive help from a patron to move to Florence in 1837, where he established his reputation. The Greek Slave sculpture and its reproductions made Powers one of the first nineteenth-century American artists to gain international repute. The original sculpture attracted over 100,000 viewers when it toured the USA in 1847. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), the influential African American abolitionist who travelled the world campaigning against slavery, owned one of Minton's Parian versions of The Greek Slave.

Subjects Depicted

The object depicts a Greek woman exposed for sale at a Turkish bazaar, with chains around her hands. It alludes to the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) but was topical as although slavery was abolished in Britain in 1833, it was still prevalent in many American states. Minton later produced further figures of enslaved people, including A Daughter of Eve (The American Slave) copying a sculpture by John Bell, in 1862. These Parian copies of larger sculptures were produced on a domestic scale in order to provoke sympathy with and demonstrate allegiance to the cause, bringing the subject of abolition and slavery into people's homes.