Dimensions 16 1/2 x 11 x 5 1/2 in. (41.9 x 27.9 x 14 cm)
Credit Line Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; The Buten Wedgwood Collection, gift through the Wedgwood Society of New York, AFI.3211.2008
Marks On the back of the base impressed: WEDGWOOD [and with the name] SHAKESPEARE
Inscription On the back of the base the name: SHAKESPEARE
In gold on the scroll from The Tempest:
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great globe itself, / Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, / And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a wreck [sic] behind / SHAKESPEARE
Provenance Manufactured by Wedgwood (est. 1759), Etruria factory, Stoke-on-Trent, England. With Seal Simons, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prior 1959 [see note 1]; Harry Buten (1904-1971) and Nettie Buten (1904-1998), Merion, Pennsylvania, in 1959 [see note 2]; by descent to their children [see note 3]; gift to the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, in 2008
1. According to the catalog card that came with the collection.
2. The figure was part of the Buten Museum of Wedgwood (operated 1958-1988) in Merion, Pennsylvania, and remained there until it closed and the collection was removed to the Nassau County Museums, Sands Point, Long Island, New York, as a long-term loan in 1988. The collection was transferred to the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, in 2008.
3. Max Buten; David Buten; Beatrice Buten Magee; and Iris Buten Newman.
