Pair of Candle Snuffers (Mother Hallahan and Père Moulaert)

£100.00

A very sweet pair of little candle snuffers in the form of figures though to depict Mother Hallahan and Père Moulaert.

Mother Hallahan was an important figure to the Staffordshire potters. She founded religious communities in Coventry and the Potteries and sought to open schools for the neglected women and illiterate girls who worked in the pot banks. Her community’s chaplain was the Belgian Dominican monk Père Moulaert. As well known and sympathetic figures in the region, they were an obvious choice for inclusion in the litany of Staffordshire pottery portraits [S. Duckworth].

These hollow figures were almost certainly intended to be used candle snuffers. They would have been inexpensively manufactured but make for fascinating and poignant curiosities for today’s collector.

Reference: Stephen Duckworth, Victorian Staffordshire Religious Pottery Figures, p. 65, figs 6.10

Height: 3cm

Date: c. 1850s

Provenance: The Stephen Duckworth Collection

A very sweet pair of little candle snuffers in the form of figures though to depict Mother Hallahan and Père Moulaert.

Mother Hallahan was an important figure to the Staffordshire potters. She founded religious communities in Coventry and the Potteries and sought to open schools for the neglected women and illiterate girls who worked in the pot banks. Her community’s chaplain was the Belgian Dominican monk Père Moulaert. As well known and sympathetic figures in the region, they were an obvious choice for inclusion in the litany of Staffordshire pottery portraits [S. Duckworth].

These hollow figures were almost certainly intended to be used candle snuffers. They would have been inexpensively manufactured but make for fascinating and poignant curiosities for today’s collector.

Reference: Stephen Duckworth, Victorian Staffordshire Religious Pottery Figures, p. 65, figs 6.10

Height: 3cm

Date: c. 1850s

Provenance: The Stephen Duckworth Collection