Bust

Object Type

Possibly the earliest portrait bust to be modelled in salt-glazed stoneware anywhere in Europe, this bust was clearly modelled by an accomplished (but still unknown) sculptor familiar with working in terracotta or wax. As the founder of the Fulham Pottery, John Dwight had high hopes for his patented material and, like Josiah Wedgwood in the 18th century, intended that his humble pottery should become associated with the fine arts, and perhaps therefore with wealthy patronage.

People

John Dwight, scholar and talented chemist, came from an Oxfordshire farming family. Like many upwardly mobile people in the Restoration period, he commissioned his family portraits, comprising stoneware busts of himself, his wife and recently-deceased daughter Lydia. These all survived within the Dwight family until their discovery on the death of his last descendant in 1859.

Materials & Making