Lot 7: EDWARD FOSTER, 1833

Description

William Coffee (1773-1846), profile to the left, in coat painted on card in gold, on a red ground, signed on the obverse and dated 1833, inscribed on the reverse Coffee/The celebrated Modeller, for/a long time employed at the/Derby China Works/By Foster/The Derby Centenarian, gilt-mounted rectangular papier-mache frame oval, 3 3/8 in. (85 mm.) high LITERATURE McKechnie, 1978, p. 478, pl. 784 Twitchett, 1980, pl. 192, p. 221 Coffee was first employed by William Duesbury in 1793 and continued to work at the Derby Porcelain factory until 1796, before working independently after 1810. He worked in London, before settling in America in 1816. He appears to be forty or so in this profile, and as the image is dated 1833, it is probable that Foster had taken a black profile of him, circa 1811, in Derby, and later in 1833 made a "red" copy of it Foster visited many parts of England, but it is known that his address in 1811 was Mr. Abbot's Trimmer, Friar Gate, Derby, from where a number of silhouettes were taken. Foster died in Derby aged 102, 1864 See Illustration on page 5.