The Red Barn Murder: A Staffordshire Pearlware Figure Group, Circa 1828
The Red Barn Murder: A Staffordshire Pearlware Figure Group, Circa 1828
Attributed to the 'Patriotic Group' pot bank, the red wooden barn with thatched roof, flanked by two leafy trees, the figures of Maria Marten and William Corder standing before the doorway, a recumbent cow and two hens nearby, titled on the base 'THE RED BARN NEAR POLSTEAD - BURY ST. EDMUNDS', 7 in. (19cm) high, 7 1/2 in. (20.2cm) wide
Footnotes:
The infamous and salacious Red Barn Murder is discussed in detail by Myrna Schkolne, People, Passions, Pastimes, and Pleasures, 2006, pp.46-53. In 1826, a tenant farmer named William Corder began a relationship with Maria Marten. Already mother to two illegitimate children, Maria's third child, fathered by William, was born in 1827 and died shortly afterwards. In May that year William arranged to meet Maria at the barn on his family farm near Polstead so that they could travel together to Ipswich to marry. However, Maria's family never saw her again and after a suspicious series of events her father searching the Red Barn at his wife's request found her murdered body buried beneath the floor.
In August 1828, William Corder was convicted of Maria's murder and it was reported that some 10,000 people travelled to watch him hang. The public was equally outraged and fascinated by the crime and visitors flocked to the Red Barn, tearing the building apart and taking pieces as morbid souvenirs.
Such huge popular interest moved the Staffordshire potters to produce a number of models of the Red Barn and of the protagonists of the tale. See the Sherratt-style table base models sold by Bonhams on 14 April 2010, lot 66. A version without the figures of Corden and Marten from the Hope McCormick Collection was sold by Christie's New York on 21 January 2003, lot 44. Another variation of the model from the Hunt Collection is illustrated by Myrna Schkolne, Holding the Past, 2014, pp.68-70.
For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
The Red Barn Murder: A Staffordshire Pearlware Figure Group, Circa 1828
Attributed to the 'Patriotic Group' pot bank, the red wooden barn with thatched roof, flanked by two leafy trees, the figures of Maria Marten and William Corder standing before the doorway, a recumbent cow and two hens nearby, titled on the base 'THE RED BARN NEAR POLSTEAD - BURY ST. EDMUNDS', 7 in. (19cm) high, 7 1/2 in. (20.2cm) wide
Footnotes:
The infamous and salacious Red Barn Murder is discussed in detail by Myrna Schkolne, People, Passions, Pastimes, and Pleasures, 2006, pp.46-53. In 1826, a tenant farmer named William Corder began a relationship with Maria Marten. Already mother to two illegitimate children, Maria's third child, fathered by William, was born in 1827 and died shortly afterwards. In May that year William arranged to meet Maria at the barn on his family farm near Polstead so that they could travel together to Ipswich to marry. However, Maria's family never saw her again and after a suspicious series of events her father searching the Red Barn at his wife's request found her murdered body buried beneath the floor.
In August 1828, William Corder was convicted of Maria's murder and it was reported that some 10,000 people travelled to watch him hang. The public was equally outraged and fascinated by the crime and visitors flocked to the Red Barn, tearing the building apart and taking pieces as morbid souvenirs.
Such huge popular interest moved the Staffordshire potters to produce a number of models of the Red Barn and of the protagonists of the tale. See the Sherratt-style table base models sold by Bonhams on 14 April 2010, lot 66. A version without the figures of Corden and Marten from the Hope McCormick Collection was sold by Christie's New York on 21 January 2003, lot 44. Another variation of the model from the Hunt Collection is illustrated by Myrna Schkolne, Holding the Past, 2014, pp.68-70.
For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
