Staffordshire pottery John Brown, Abolitionist, c. 1859.

A fine and rare Staffordshire pottery figure of the American abolitionist, John Brown, c. 1859. Compassionately modelled as the anti slavery campaigner, accompanied by two young Afro American children. Decorated in underglaze cobalt blue, and enamels, beneath a pearlware glaze. Titled to the base in raised capitals ‘John Brown’. Heightened in gilt. Height – 28.5 cm, 11 1/4”. Width – 14 cm, 5 1/2”. Depth – 5.8 cm, 2 1/4”. Condition – Typical minor wear to the gilt title. No damage. No restoration. In excellent condition. Staffordshire Portrait Figures, P.D.Gordon Pugh, colour plate 21, p.205. Victorian Staffordshire Figures, A. & N. Harding, Fig. 55, p.33. John Brown (1800-1859) Born in Connecticut, and grew to become an important campaigner for the abolition of slavery. He established a refuge for escaped slaves in the mountains of Virginia. An ill fated attack by him and eighteen of his men, on the US Armoury at Harpers Ferry in 1859, resulted in his capture, by marines led by Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried and convicted of insurrection and murder, by a Court in Virginia, and sentenced to death by hanging. Republicans popularised the song ‘John Browns body lies a-mouldering in the grave’ during the American Civil War.