A seated cat with upright ears and grounded paws, holding a small brown mouse in its mouth.
The figure is formed from two press-molded halves, joined vertically along the spine, with the seam carefully smoothed but faintly visible.
The marbling of the body flows in soft waves of buff, grey, and brown clay, the darker layers derived from an iron-rich brown marl that fires through the body to a deep chestnut tone.
The mouse, modeled separately in that brown clay, fuses seamlessly into the main body at the mouth, its form distinct beneath a continuous glaze.
A delicate cobalt-blue wash is brushed across the ears, shoulders, and body.
Under magnification, the blue is visible beneath the glaze, slightly diffused into it — clear evidence of pre-firing cobalt staining rather than post-firing enamel.
In the 1740s–1750s, potters around Fenton and Shelton perfected agateware by laminating clays of contrasting colors, an innovation traceable to John Astbury and refined by Thomas Whieldon.
Decorative animal figures served as tests of technical control: the joining of laminated clays, color migration under salt vapor, and shrinkage in complex forms. The cat-and-mouse theme combined domestic humor with a nod to natural history—apt for display on a mantel flanking a mirror, where reflected light animated the marbling.
The rhythmic flow of marbled strata across shoulders and haunches mimics the direction of fur, lending vitality.
The restrained cobalt accents provide cool contrast to the warm iron tones, a color harmony characteristic of Whieldon’s palette.
The modelling, neither naïve nor over-refined, aligns with other Staffordshire salt-glaze animals produced before 1760, when finer engine-turned wares supplanted press-molded novelty figures.
Material & Technique: Salt-glazed stoneware composed of laminated buff, grey, and iron-bearing brown clays (“laid agate”).
The mouse modeled separately in solid brown clay of the same iron-rich body, joined at the mouth before glazing.
Body and mouse salt-glazed together in a single firing.
Extra fine orange-peel texture typical of mid-18th-century salt-glaze kilns when using a saggar.
Entire open underside glazed, indicating firing on refractory stilts or within a sagger rather than on a raw kiln shelf.
Press-molded in two halves and luted vertically along the spine.
Dimensions: Height 5.25 in (13.3 cm)
Current Condition: Excellent, with minor chips restored to the tips of both ears, a tiny flake on the edge of one ear, and tiny chips at the tips of both mouse ears.
Clay Composition: The alternating buff and brown laminations penetrate through the entire wall thickness, visible on the open inside of the body, proving genuine laid agate construction.
The brown strata and the mouse share identical color and hardness, confirming that mid-18th-century Staffordshire iron marl is the pigmenting agent rather than a later-applied oxide.
Further, very fine chips at the ends of the mouse’s ears indicate that the brown coloration is uniform throughout.
Salt-glaze Texture: The surface exhibits uniform micro-pitting. Later imitation glazes lack this micro-cratering.
The glaze is continuous and finely fused, exhibiting only the faintest granular texture visible under magnification.
This smooth surface results from moderate sodium-vapor exposure within a protective sagger, a technique employed in Staffordshire kilns to preserve the clarity of agate marbling.
Although lacking the coarse “orange-peel” found on heavier utilitarian wares, the microscopic pin-pitting and flow lines confirm a true salt-glazed surface rather than later imitation.
Cobalt Wash: The translucent blue tone blooms through the glaze, proving sub-glaze cobalt oxide, a technique current at Whieldon’s Fenton Vivian works and nearby potteries in the 1750s.
Press-Mold Join: The vertical seam corresponds precisely with known mold construction from Staffordshire animal figures c. 1745–60.
References:
1stDibs Antique English Saltglaze Agateware Cat Carrying a Mouse, (listed US $4,463.39).
Burnap Collection, English Pottery 1675–1825, no. 362.
Christie’s, London 2010, lot 82.
Chipstone Foundation, Marbled Agateware: Techniques and Identification, 2005.
John Howard Antiques, Antique English Saltglaze Agateware Cat Carrying a Mouse,
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury 2021 sale, lot 950.
Henry Sandon, Staffordshire Pottery, 1970, pp. 52–53 (on blue staining and salt-glaze firing)
