This little porcelain house with an operational chimney was listed in part of a lot as a “pastille burner”. I couldn't figure out why on earth you would burn sweets so after a little googling found this site and a fascinating story about the origin of pastille burners. https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/pastille-burners-regency-glade/ Not sure why the auctioneers called it a “Staffordshire” pastille burner as there are no marks anywhere. Wish some company had marked it as it would have made dating easier. Dimensions – 9.9cm x 7.9cm x 11cm high – 0.24Kg. Cheers Stephen
They're almost never marked, but they were nearly all made in Staffordshire, so the description is reasonable.
I’m very late to the thread but Encylclopedia Brittanica has good working definition here : https://www.britannica.com/art/Staffordshire-figure They never have marks, none of mine do. Extremely rare that they have marks at all. Some makers can be determined by the colours and the style and certain motifs but more often than not the maker cannot be found out. Very cute, I don’t have any architectural figures, only one of people so far. This piece 8snmost likely dated to around 1860.
