​I would not normally put up a damaged figure as Figure of the Month but this example of “The New Marriage Act” really caught my eye in the O’Mahoney Collection sale by Sheppard’s Irish Auction House (24th March 2020). In New Marriage Act figure groups, the bride and groom stand before a parson, whilst a young clerk beseeches the heavens for approval of the union. These groups commemorate the passage of The New Marriage Act of 1823, legislation that reinforced marriage.

Prior to 1823, persnickety marriage law made marriage difficult, and also made it quite easy to make a mistake. If a couple failed to comply with all the rules, their marriage was not legal and either party could seek an annulment even many years later. Even if both parties were happy to end their marriage, an annulment had disastrous financial consequences for children who unexpectedly found themselves declared illegitimate. Society expected marriage to last for life, so the New Marriage Act 1823 no longer made it possible to void a marriage for want of a minor mistake in form or fact either before or during the ceremony.  

The reason for my particular attraction to this figure is the fact that the wonderful early blue-tinged glaze is so abundant and visible and this is particularly so on the photograph of the plaque on the figure (left). This example is strikingly similar to that illustrated in Myrna Schkolne’s Staffordshire Figures 1780 to 1840 Volume 4, page 15, figure 139.29.