This hand-painted Prattware plaque depicts a pair of lions resting side by side, modeled in bold relief with great vitality and charm. Made in England around 1800, the piece captures the early Staffordshire fascination with both natural history and decorative exuberance. The lions, likely content after a hearty meal, are rendered with expressive brushwork and lively texture. Their bodies are painted in a warm light brown, their manes and tails in a deeper shade, and their muzzles finished in a near-black brown that adds striking contrast. The vigorous painting style enhances the tactile quality of the molded forms, giving the scene a sense of immediacy and warmth. Prattware pieces like this were celebrated for their raised designs painted with underglaze oxides, which produced vivid and enduring colors when fired. The plaque, pierced at the top for hanging, is a fine example of late 18th-century English earthenware that blends folk energy with sculptural precision. Examples of this subject are illustrated in John and Griselda Lewis, Prattware: English and Scottish Relief Decorated and Underglaze Colored Earthenware 1780–1840, page 208, and in the Burnap Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (b.851).
Dimensions: 11″ x 9″ x 2″ height
Condition: Excellent
Price: $450
Decoration: High-relief depiction of two reclining lions, hand-painted in light, dark, and near-black brown underglaze oxides
Material: Prattware, pearled creamware body with underglaze decoration
Style: English folk art earthenware, relief-molded and underglaze-painted
Origin: England
Date: Circa 1800
     Notable Details:
Provenance: The Rouse Lench Collection
Vivid hand-painted relief showing a pair of lions at rest
Characteristic Prattware underglaze oxides in warm brown tones
Pierced for hanging, typical of decorative plaques of the period
Comparable examples recorded by John and Griselda Lewis and in the Burnap Collection