Pointer or Retriever C1750

A standing bitch, in the white, modelled at the alert with teeth exposed and tail raised.  She stands on a grassy base with tree stump support. An exceptionally lively piece of sculpture.

The porcelain with slightly blued glaze. Green translucency. Underside glazed. L. 5.1 in (13.0cm).

Provenance: with E. & L. Manners, London, 2003; (formerly on loan, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).
Condition: Excellent. Tip of tongue lacking; restoration to tip of tail. 

The modelling of the pointer shows the animal in full muscular tension and with the classic characteristics of its breed in the hard, lean, body suggesting power, endurance, agility and intelligence. The figure is in counterbalance to the retriever shown with the kill, as is the smooth coat of the pointer against the longer coat of the retriever. The Bow ‘Barking Retriever’ model, which appears to be relatively more common, was presumably the left hand figure of a retriever – pointer pair. (see Freeman Collection, 1982, ‘Barking Retriever, c. 1752’. #249, p. 149. 

Examples of this figure appear to be rare, including (i) Spero, June 2010, p.22, as “an early Bow model of a ‘barking dog’, c. 1750-52”, and (ii) Sotheby’s, English Enamels and British and Irish Ceramics, London, February 1986, lot 138, described as ‘Barking Retriever c. 1752’.