Basaltware Bust of George Washington

Offered is this very rare black basalt bust on pedestal of George Washington sculpted by Enoch Wood, 1818.

For more than two decades, Enoch Wood & Sons produced a broad variety of painted and transfer-decorated tablewares specifically intended for the American market including these miniature busts of George Washington.

More commonly seen from the firm are busts in light-colored pearlware. All were hand-painted utilizing a broad range of colors with the white powdered wig being the only thing consistent across the range. Examples in black basalt (a material which shimmers, despite its blackness) were formed in the very same molds but are far less common.

Missing on this example is a medallion identifying Washington, his birth and death years and its sculptor, Wood. The medallion is seen on other basalt and pearlware examples in the position of the vent holes at back. Curious that in the absence of the medallion, someone in this object’s 200-year history has added the information in white paint to the pedestal.

Given the splits along shoulders and fold lines of the pedestal and the missing medallion (all occurring in the manufacturing process), the question arrises of whether this piece was a factory second… all the better, in my opinion.

Enoch Wood (1759–1840), born into one of the more important Staffordshire pottery families, blazed his own path when he co-founded his first firm in 1783. It wasn’t until 1819 that he broke away from outside partnerships and formed Enoch Wood and Sons.