Female Figure 1853 - 1858

Editor: This lovely little sculpture, titled "Female Figure" was crafted sometime between 1853 and 1858 by the United States Pottery Company. It's a ceramic piece and rather small, I think. I'm curious about its creation… What stories or reflections does this piece spark in you? Curator: Ah, she’s lovely, isn’t she? Like a whisper from a simpler time. I see the dawn of industrialization trying to capture a very intimate, quiet moment of the mid-19th century: putting on one's shoes...almost aggressively mundane when I put it that way! What does it tell us that such a moment would be immortalized in clay? Almost daringly domestic. What do *you* make of her shoes, just there? Editor: Well, that's something I didn’t immediately clock! Just one on, one off – it suggests she's in a liminal space, perhaps transitioning from one part of her day to the next, poised between inside and outside. Curator: Exactly! And think of the care the artist took in modeling each tiny button. There is also a lovely contrast – that glossy sheen of new technology against the intimate ordinariness it aims to reproduce... Are the smooth surfaces perhaps attempting to evoke the sleek, expensive quality of marble for middle-class tastes? She's accessible art but aspires to something grander. Editor: So, it's more than just a charming figurine, but speaks to cultural shifts around class and accessibility to beauty in mid-19th century America. Fascinating. I never would have seen all that! Curator: Isn't it wonderful how a single ceramic moment can be so full of implications? Always look for the details, they hold the keys. Editor: I’ll never look at porcelain figurines the same way. Thanks for shedding light on this!