St Barbara

This statuette is by an unknown artist made in the late 15th or early 16th century in Siegburg in Germany.

It is made of pipeclay, which is a fine white clay also used to make tobacco pipes and pottery. Conveniently situated on a major trading route, Siegburg was a centre of ceramic production with well-organised workshops and kilns in which pipe-clay figures were also fired.

The figure represents Saint Barbara, who was a Christian saint and martyr. She is the patron saint of artillerymen, military engineers and miners and all professions working with explosives.

Her legend seems not to have any historical foundation behind it.

It tells that her father built a tower with two windows where he shut his daughter in to keep her away from her suitors. Barbara persuaded the workmen to add a third window, which symbolises the Trinity.