A Fine Chest of Drawers Moneybox by Elizabeth Kitson, Halifax, Yorkshire, England, Mid-19th C.

Description

Here is a rare opportunity to purchase a superb folk art agateware moneybox made by Elizabeth Kitson, the teenage daughter of Edward Kitson working in her father’s pottery on the wind-swept moorland heights above Elland, at either the Woodman House or the Ainley Top Potteries, near Halifax.

She worked on a variety of different styles of press-moulded and highly individual completely hand-built examples. This practice of mothers and daughters helping in the pottery by making ornate models for gifts and commemorative wares as kiln fillers in the spaces between the much bigger utilitarian wares, to improve the income, was commonplace.

These chest of drawers moneyboxes formed some of the most interesting wares produced within the Halifax area during the mid-19th century.

Carefully assembled of hand-made slabs of solid agateware and constructed in three dimensions, formed, rolled and joined together carefully with a press-moulded ornamental front.

These large chest of drawers are very rare today, especially in this excellent condition.

Elizabeth was responsible for a number of different styles of ornate chest-of-drawers moneyboxes which are exhibited in several major museum collections, including the Potteries Museum in Stoke-On-Trent, the Glaisher Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and also at the Shibden Hall Folk Museum in Halifax, where examples of her work were thankfully donated by her descendants, which help to give us a firm provenance.

These moneyboxes are highly prized examples of her work, considered to be some of the finest of Folk Art Pottery, these all made by a young girl helping out in her father’s pottery. Wonderful.

Date
Mid-19th Century

Dimensions
7.5” H x 6.5” W x 3.5” D    O/A approx.

Condition
In excellent condition with minor wear commensurate with age and use.

Price
£475    $619-USD

Ref Number: 420101A
Enquiries Welcome