34. Ophelia & Hamlet

Enamel-painted Figures

Beneath figure 34.3

Picture
I thought you might enjoy seeing figure 34.3 from beneath. The figure felt like a brick when I picked it up. That's because the square with a hole cut in it that forms the base is one thick slab of clay. Delicious blue glaze, is it not?
34.9. Believe it or not, the figure below is yet another slight variation of the many Ophelia models shown. She lies between figures 34.3 on the one hand, and figures 346-34.7 on the other, having the base of the former and the head of the latter. Note the opening above her left shoulder, as on 34.3.
antique Staffordshire figure, lead-glazed figure, Myrna Schkolne

Figures Decorated with Underglaze Colors or with Colored Glaze
Ophelia and Hamlet, formerly with Jonathan Horne (L), and Hamlet, courtesy of the Victorian and Albert Museum (R). Hamlet, like Ophelia, has a willow branch draped around him. I suspect decoration is with colored glazes rather than underglaze colors. No enamel-painted Hamlet has yet been recorded.