£5,000
Auction: DESIGN Since 1860
glazed polychromed terracotta, oak frame
Literature: Hyland, P., The Della Robbia Pottery Birkenhead 1894-1906, ACC, 2014, p.159
Note: Benjamin Creswick was a sculptor and teacher based in Birmingham. He was a founder member of the Century Guild along with A.H. Mackmurdo and William de Morgan. He lived in Liverpool briefly in the 1880s. He will have been known to Philip Rathbone, and he carved figures for Wallasey Memorial Unitarian Church, designed by Harold Rathbone’s partner Edmund. The full extent of Creswick’s work for Della Robbia is not known, however, the closing sale of the company included a ‘finely modelled panel – “Merry Drinkers” in low relief, By Mr Creswick, of Birmingham School of Art’, possibly this panel.