A RARE ENGLISH SILVER LUSTRE POTTERY BUST OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, Circa 1816. This rare silver lustre figure was made to celebrate the marriage of Princess Charlotte to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg on May 2, 1816. Intertestingly, her wedding dress was in silver lamé (see below). The unusual lustre bust of Princess Charlotte is placed on a shaped plinth. ;She is depicted bust length with her hair in a French roll and a hairband. There is a repaired chip to the front right corner. Height: 13 inches Princess Charlotte: Princess Charlotte Augusta was the daughter of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg. She was as strongly loved by the people of England as her father was disliked. She died on November 6th, 1817, at age 21, from complications of childbirth, after bearing a dead child. The loss of the potential queen and her heir was deeply felt. (http://www.georgianindex.net/Prn_Charlotte/P_Charlotte.html) Leopold and Charlotte were married at Carlton House in London on the evening of May 2, 1816. Some fifty privileged guests, many of them members of the royal family, attended the wedding ceremony which took place in the Crimson State Room at Carlton House on the evening of 2 May 1816. Princess Charlotte''s wedding dress was silver lama [lamé] on net, over a silver tissue slip, embroidered at the bottom with silver lama in shells and flowers. Body and sleeves to correspond, elegantly trimmed with point Brussels lace. The manteau was of silver tissue lined with white satin, with a border of embroidery to answer that on the dress, and fastened in front with a splendid diamond ornament On the Death of the Princess Charlotte Yes Britain mourns, as with electric touch For youth, for love, for happiness destroyed. Her universal population melts In grief spontaneous; and hard hearts are moved, And rough unpolished natures learn to feel For those they envied, levelled in the dust By fate''s impartial stroke; and pulpits sound With vanity and woe to earthly goods, And urge, and dry the tear­Yet one there is Who midst this general burst of grief remains In strange tranquillity; whom not the stir And long drawn murmurs of the gathering crowd, That by his very windows trail the pomp Of hearse, and blazoned arms, and long array Of sad funereal rites, nor the loud groans And deep felt anguish of a husband''s heart Can move to mingle with this flood one tear. In careless apathy­perhaps in mirth He wears the day. Yet is he near in blood, The very stem on which this blossom grew, And at his knees she fondled, in the charm And grace spontaneous, which alone belongs To untaught infancy:­Yet O forbear Nor deem him hard of heart, for, awful, struck By heaven''s severest visitation, sad, Like a scathed oak amidst the forest trees Lonely he stands; leaves bud, and shoot, and fall, He holds no sympathy with living nature, Or time''s incessant change. Then, in this hour, While pensive thought is busy with the woes And restless change of poor humanity, Think then, oh think of him, and breathe one prayer From the full tide of sorrow spare one tear, For him who does not weep!

Antique Porcelain & Pottery
Antique Figurines & Statues