Early Derby Porcelain Group Depicting Father Time Clipping the Wings of Cupid

Group in soft-paste porcelain, painted with enamels and gilded, of Time clipping the wings of Love, and Time is seated on a pedestal of masonry with flowered drapery thrown round his waist, and holds Cupid on his knee, and at his feet on the scrolled base, are a scythe, hour-class, crown, sceptre, terrestrial globe, skull, and Cupid's quiver. Circa 1765 CE - 1780 CE

Extremely rare!

The figure (also known as Time clipping the Wings of Cupid) was derived from the painting of Time Clipping the Wings of Love by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641).

The print of this subject by Charles Phillips, is dated 1772, and is therefore too late to have been used for the earliest versions of the model. A coloured etching of this subject made c. 1633-4, by François Perrier (1594-1649) bears an inscription derived from Virgil, 'Omnia vincit Amor, vincit mox tempus Amorem'. The theme, however, may have been inspired by a more recent work, Otto van Veen's Amorum Emblemata (1608), which included the verse: 'Loues harrte is euer young T'is onlie tyme that can the winges of Cupid clip, And make him fly more low than he was wont to doo, But Tyme clips not away his good will thereunto, The aged carter loves to heare the lashing whip.'

See Franklin A. Barrett and Arthur L. Thorpe, Derby Porcelain, London, 1971, pp. 39-40, 183, plate 92 for a white example of the model, here attributed to Pierre Stephan, that was produced in three sizes of which the present example is the largest; also Peter Bradshaw, Derby Porcelain Figures, 1750-1848, London, 1990, pp. 269-270, No. 124 where the model is described as adapted from an engraving by Charles Philips after a Van Dyke painting of the same subject.

One of the most famous works of early period Derby, it is present in many museums around the world and also at the most famous auctions.

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Albert and Victoria Museum

Fitzwilliam Museum

The Holburn Museum

This figurine appears to be part of a unique collection of porcelain Derby figurines, which has been meticulously gathered over many years

The Derby Porcelain factory has its roots in the late 1740s, when Andrew Planché, a Walloon Huguenot refugee, started making simple porcelain toys shaped like animals in his back yard. In 1756 Staffordshire enameller William Duysbury and banker John Heath started a new porcelain factory with Planché and this was to grow out to the largest factory of its time, buying up the bankrupted Chelsea and Bow factories, as well as the stock of several other workshops including that of James Giles. The combination of various traditions, porcelain making skills and sophisticated clients enabled Duesbury to create one of the best porcelain factories of the 18th and 19th Centuries, which after many ups and downs is still operative today.

The reputation of the factory’s output was at its 18th century peak and in self-published advertising material, the “Derby Porcelain Manufactory” was proclaiming itself to be “the second Dresden”.

Duesbury maintained what would now be termed “retail space” independent of the Chelsea works, at a former pub – The Castle Tavern – in Bedford Street, Covent Garden. This was both a warehousing facility and an exhibition area, and was the shopfront for what had by now become “a very thriving and lucrative trade”. Derby porcelain was hand painted, some with with imari patterns, in London at the Chelsea pemises and the output from this dual operation is Chelsea Derby. Ultimately, the Chelsea site was closed down and the name Derby continued in increasingly splendid isolation, to the point where continued Royal patronage afforded Duesbury license to append a crown to his trademark, Royal Crown Derby Porcelain was born. It’s worth noting that Duesbury also used representations of the marks used on Sevres, Dresden and Berlin-made porcelain, as