Object number
M.2017.26
Title
Arlott’s Immortals Ceramics Collection
Date
1981 - 1983
Creator
Production notes
From the series of cricketers known as ‘Arlott’s Immortals’. The figure was modelled in plaster of Paris and then made in bone china in de Aquino’s Studio. D’Aquino said that the secret of obtaining stability in the kiln was to add a percentage of dental porcelain. The figure is first biscuit fired to 1250 C then polished and sprayed with clear glaze on the hot biscuit to obtain a very thin coat of glaze, then fired to 1140 C. The on-glaze decoration is next. Each colour is built up coat by coat and each coat has to be fired on separately, first at 820 C and subsequently at 740 C
Material
Size
Description
Set of 16 figures of cricketers in action. Each one painted and set on a wooden base. Provenance file includes supporting material, photographs, cuttings depicting stances and limited edition guarantee certificates. (to be sorted and culled by Archivist)
Display caption
Arlott’s Immortals, 1982
Count D’Aquino (designer)
D'Aquino Studio, Channel Islands (manufacture)
Limited edition 25 of 150
Artist and designer Count D’Aquino was born in Poland
and studied art in Rome before moving to Britain around
1939. In in 1982 he designed a series of cricketers
known as "Arlott's Immortals".
He developed fourteen hundred separate moulds for these figures, which were
modelled in plaster of Paris and then made in bone
china in D’Aquino's studio in the Channel Islands. Each
was then hand painted in enamel colours and mounted
on a mahogany plinth.
D'Aquino said that the secret of obtaining stability in the
kiln was to add a percentage of dental porcelain. The
figure is fired unglazed to 1250 °C then polished and
sprayed with clear glaze on the hot surface to obtain a
very thin coat of glaze, then fired at 1140 °C.
Each colour was built up coat by coat and was fired
separately, firstly at 820 °C and secondly at 740 °C.
The cricketers depicted (left to right): Victor Trumper, Viv
Richards, Learie Constantine, Jack Hobbs, Jim Laker.
The cricketers depicted (left to right): Fred Spofforth,
Jack Hobbs, Dennis Lillee, Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott.
MCC Collections:Acquisition 2017
M.2017.26
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