The figure on the left carries a notice in the brim of his hat bringing the public’s attention to an auction of ‘household furniture’, the figure on the right carries an advertisement for Lasselio’s performance of tightrope dancing and tumbling.
More importantly for collectors, these figures are variations of the Mansion House Dwarves “perhaps the most famous of all pairs of Derby figures”, according to John Twitchett’s Derby Porcelain.
The original pair were listed in the Haslem inventory of figure production as a pair of ‘Grotesque punches’, number 227 out of 390.
Originally retailed at a cost of 18 shillings, a price which had risen to 90 shillings by 1878 and £154 by 1980 (when Twitchett published his book), the Mansion House dwarves have improved their value sevenfold in the past 20 years. This pair, 7in (18cm) high, attracted £740 at the Somerset sale.
Mansion House dwarves grow in stature
UK: ONE rarely gets the chance to auction an auctioneer’s advertisement, at least in ceramic form, but this is what happened when Greenslade Taylor Hunt (15 per cent buyer's premium) offered this matched pair of early 19th century Derby figures, right, at their Taunton salerooms on May 31.
