Peacock, shape no. 2045

This model is not only one of the highpoints of ceramic art in the 19th-century, but a landmark of sculpture more generally during the Victorian era. Its designer, the noted animalier sculptor Paul Comoléra left France in the early 1870s, fleeing the chaos of the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, and taking refuge in England. Comoléra worked for Minton in the mid 1870s and created a number of sculptural animal models for the firm during this period. The making and firing of such a large and complex sculptural model underlined Minton’s place as one of the leading ceramic manufacturers of the 19th century.

Minton utilized this tour-de-force as the centerpiece of a number of its most important promotional displays in the late 1870s and early 1880s, including at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris and the International Exhibition of 1880–81 in Melbourne, Australia. Minton continued to produce the model until at least the mid 1890s, when the firm included it in a display at the exhibition of British pottery, china, and glass that opened in May 1894 at the Imperial Institute in London.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Private collection until 2010; sale, Christie’s, London, 3 September 2010, lot 179; purchased by private collectors, Rye, New York, 2010; purchased by Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, 2010; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2024.