Featured 18th Century Derby Milton vs. 19th Century Staffordshire Flatback Milton

Hey everyone, sorry in advance for the photos, definately rushed them. (Maxed out the photo limit too haha)

Anyway, these are two of my favourite things I own and always love to look at often whenever I can and whenever I’m home. Crazy to think that we can afford a Derby figure like this now but in its day it was aristocracy exclusive essentially. I wonder who owned this fellow, I reckon it was definately George III xD.

The figure of Milton is 18th Century Nottingham Road period Derby. It has the characteristic Derby patch marks to its base as well as an absolutely terrifying firing crack reaching from one side to the other. Their is a chip to the cape as well as to two laces on his right leg.
I’ve always been interest what happened to his face, looks like he has one eye looking at me, one eye looking for me. It’s so oddly misshapen in the 18th Century Derby Milton figures but was slimmed in the early 19th Century, wonder if it became a stain on their reputation and made amends later, who knows.
I bought this figure from eBay for £170 about a year ago.

The second figure is a Mid-Victorian Staffordshire Flatback dating to around 1860. I was so excited when I saw this also on eBay since I wanted it to display next to the Derby piece. I picked it up for £20, expecting to pay a lot more but guess I got lucky. It is obviously modelled from the original derby design with some cool changes made, assuredly to make the figure easy to mass produce in basic moulds. The protruding cape, the lavish scroll, the base. During this period Staffordshire figures were at their apex and trends switched from mostly pastoral scenes of the early 19th Century to a more real life subject matter, included portrait figures as the most common as in this piece.

 

hello Nathan....keep looking for a Staffordshire Shakespeare as a pair to Milton...sorry i sold my pair...the derby is still a good one even with it's firing problem...regards pewter2

 

Interesting to see the copy. I don’t think it was a rare thing, though, for the Staff factories to look to the earlier figs for inspiration!

 

Hello KentWhirled..agree... several factories made similar subjects as the topics were aligned to historical and social events of the day. The lesser ones ie "Staffordshire" were often produced external to any factory on a piece work arrangement......1 penny plain, 2 pennies painted.even lesser ... a family affair, little kids included, then back to a factory for firing.The better factories eg, Walton and Parr , Derby et al produced a finer product in factory............an interesting period in 19th century pottery industry......and lucky Nathan lives in another well known area of the English pottery industry.....LUCKY, LUCKY.........regards....pewter2

 

Haha feel lucky to live in stoke on Trent for sure in Staffordshire itself.
Yeh the figure isn’t too rare but it’s ok value comes from it simply being a more attractive and meaningful piece than the generic figures you see on a day to day basis.

I definitely love my derby figure, firing crack or not they aren’t making anymore xD

I assume there is a Shakespeare pair for both I’ve only seen the derby Shakespeare not a staffs yet. I’d love to eventually though.

 

I think early derby figures can be so cheap, just think for how amazing they really are up close they don’t get the acknowledgement. Then again I’m not complaining xD

 

Thanks for sharing your treasures Nathan That firing crack does looks scary - is there a way to fill it in/repair it or would it be too expensive?

 

I haven’t looked into it. I’m imagining it wouldn’t be too expensive. The minor releases would probably cost more. I have another derby figure Time clipping the wings of love and that has been repaired and has now got what looks like tarnished glue on to I’ll need that fixed