Lady with basket 1745 - 1760

This porcelain figure of a woman with a basket was made at the Saint James’s Factory in the mid-18th century, representing the fashion for porcelain during the Rococo era. Porcelain is made from a mixture of kaolin clay and petuntse, a feldspathic rock. These were fired at extremely high temperatures. Once hardened, porcelain can be painted with mineral pigments and gilded with gold leaf. This figure has a basket made as a separate piece, the porcelain meticulously molded to resemble a woven form, before being painted with extreme detail. The intense labor required to produce such pieces made them luxury items, prized by elites for display. Yet, the figure also reflects an interest in the everyday: rather than depicting a mythological scene, as porcelain figurines often did, it represents an anonymous woman carrying a basket, an object of labor. Consider the relationship between the cost and preciousness of the material, and the relatively ordinary subject matter. It invites reflection on the social hierarchies of the time. It challenges us to consider the many hands involved in the making, and the social world that gave it meaning.