On the cover: "Cry – God for Harry! England! and Saint George!" An English pottery figure
of St. George and the Dragon. Pearlware with underglaze colors, 11" (27.9 cm) h. This colorful
and amusing figure of England's patron saint would seem to be quite topical at the present time,
when there is an apparent resurgence of popular English nationalism, and when the English flag
(the red cross of St. George) is being waved more than ever before. These figures have been
ascribed to Staffordshire and dated around 1790, but they are now generally considered to have
been made in Yorkshire at a somewhat later period, about 1830. An interesting example of this
figure is illustrated by Jonathan Horne on page 29 of his English Pottery and related works of art
2001. It is dated 1838, and was probably made at the Top Pottery in Rawmarsh, established by
William Hawley in 1796. The Yorkshire version of St. George is based on a more statuesque
Staffordshire model in pearlware with color glazes, manufactured by the Wood family at
Burslem in the late eighteenth century. The saintly hero's lance in all these groups would always
have been of non-ceramic material – usually metal or perhaps wood, as in the example on the
cover. Equestrian groups constitute an important and attractive class of English pottery figures,
several of which are illustrated in Robert Harrison's article on Staffordshire figures in this issue
of Ars Ceramica
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