User:DavePotter0/sandbox

Gwendolen Muriel Parnell (1878 [Gibraltor] - [Gloucestershire] 1957) was an English potter, modeller and painter renowned for making literary and historical figures in the 18th Century style, firstly at a pottery at [Cheyne Walk Chelsea] from about 1918 although she may have started making figures before this date, then as a modeller for [Royal Worcester].

She was the daughter of The Hon. Arthur Parnell (c.1841-1914), a Colonel in the Royal Engineers, and Mary Anne Dunn. Her grandfather was [Henry William Parnell, 3rd Baron Congleton].

At the beginning of the 20th Century,There was a vogue for ceramic statuettes, the artists who made these small-scale sculptures do not now appear in most of the histories of [studio pottery]. They were mainly, though not exclusively, made by women. The genre was popular in art schools from the first decade of the century to the mid-1930s when the market for this sort of ceramic figure suffered a sharp decline. Some went on to work for ceramic manfacturers including Royal Worcester, including [Phoebe Stabler],[Anne Acheson], [Jessamine Bray], and [Freda and Dorothy Doughty].

The first figures she modelled for [Royal Worcester] in 1935 were of [Queen Mary] and [George V], which were much admired, they were produced in a limited edition but were withdrawn following the death of the King.

She produced figures mostly in 18th Century style costume, including 'Bal Masque', 'The Drum' and 'Amaryllis' and larger groups including 'The Planters' Daughter'. She modelled a series of figures of London Cries, based on a series of prints of street vendors, but these were not a commercial success and were subsequently withdrawn. Other models include smaller figures including 'The Thief' based on Ali Baba, 'Magnolia Bud' and the 'Chinoiserie Children' series which proved popular and were issued for over twenty years.

There are examples of her work in the [Victoria and Albert Museum, [Museum of London] and [Dyson Perrins Museum] collections as well as some records in the [National Art Library] of the successful pottery she ran in Chelsea. http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=ann_1288623105&search=parnell

1927 Aquatints and Etchings by Alfred Hartley, R.E. Chelsea Cheyne Figures by Gwendolen Parnell, Paintings and Water-colours by Lucien Pissarro, Leicester Galleries, London, June–July 1927. Includes nineteen works by Pissarro.