Measuring 3ft 5in long by 2ft 9in high (1.04m x 84cm), it followed in the great tradition of producing life size models of animals, from Kirchner‘s menagerie in the early days of Meissen to the peacock that emblemised the Minton factory in all its glamour and aspiration. But it was a melancholy story of an unfulfilled commissions and a pottery in decline that formed the background to its sale at Louis Taylor’s (10 per cent buyer’s
premium) Stoke on Trent auction rooms on March 19-20.
The Wains factory was a small
outfit in Staffordshire that resembled Beswick in their output of Melba ware models of animals. This pony,
however, was a one-off commission for a local collector who loved the creatures, and so large was the intended model that it took three attempts to fire it successfully in the kiln. Unfortunately, the collector died before paying for the model, and the Wains family retained it until after the factory went into liquidation a couple of years ago.
Consigned by members of the family with expectations of £300-500, the pony found a new home with a Gloucestershire dealer who paid the winning sum of £860.
Horse sense at Stoke
UK: Art imitates life in many ways – few stranger than this 1950’s pottery model of a Shetland Pony.
