{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O120194"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120194/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AB9059/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AB9059/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AB9059","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O120194/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O120194","accessionNumber":"S.1026-1996","objectType":"Figurine","titles":[{"title":"Fanny Kemble","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Earthenware flatbacks and figurines for mantelpiece decoration were first produced in Staffordshire in the late 1830s.  The earliest datable figures appear to be of Queen Victoria. Images of royalty proved a lucrative market and during the 1840s there were countless other royal figures issued by Staffordshire pottery firms, celebrating, for example, Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, and the birth of the royal children.  Production of earthenware figures continued throughout Victoria's lifetime, but although they were still made after her death in 1901, few appear to have been produced after 1905.  During their heyday, however, they were produced in vast numbers, usually modelled after prints. Since they were produced in moulds, they were relatively cheap and easy to make. Figures of actors and actresses were especially popular. \r\n\r\nThis figurine probably represents the actress Fanny Kemble and is based on an engraving by Richard J. Lane ARA after a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence, completed in 1829.  Frances Anne Kemble (1809-1893) was the daughter of the actors Maria and Charles Kemble.  Her father was part of the Kemble family that dominated the British stage in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; the great actress Sarah Siddons was his sister and  John Philip and Stephen Kemble his brothers. Fanny made her stage debut aged nineteen as Juliet in <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> at Covent Garden Theatre, to help save her father from bankruptcy when he was manager of Covent Garden.  Despite her misgivings about the theatre as a profession, she went on to become a popular actress both in England and America, where she married Pierce Butler of Philadelphia in 1834, a marriage that ended in divorce in 1848.","physicalDescription":"Flatback figurine of Fanny Kemble, standing upright on an integral gilt-lined base with her right hand down by her side and her left hand bent to her bodice at waist-height.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"makers","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"earthenware","id":"x29356"},{"text":"glaze","id":"AAT15091"}],"techniques":[{"text":"moulding","id":"x46876"},{"text":"firing (heating)","id":"AAT53887"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"glazing (coating)","id":"AAT53914"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Glazed earthenware","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Figures & Decorative ceramics","id":"THES48954"},{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Earthenware","id":"THES48964"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2006AB9059"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES355436"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"figurines","id":"AAT47455"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Staffordshire","id":"x29181"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1840","earliest":"1835-01-01","latest":"1844-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"17.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"8.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"1.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of base","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"8.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of base","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"8.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of base","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Figurine, probably representing the actress Fanny Kemble (1809-1893).  Earthenware, Staffordshire, ca.1840","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Staffordshire Portrait Figures of the Victorian Era</i> by P.D. Gordon Pugh, p.466, plate 110, fig.220."}],"production":"Modelled from a lithograph by Richard J. Lane ARA, after a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA completed in 1829.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Kemble, Frances Anne","id":"N4818"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.1026-1996"],"accessionNumberNum":"1026","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":1996,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-23","recordCreationDate":"2006-01-03","availableToBook":true}}