Wall plaque decorated with a painted image in blue of a woman holding a roll of paper, the border with a repeat pattern of cornucopia.
The design is based on the painting “The Ballad Singer”, by Daniel Maclise RA (1806–70), painted in 1858. A print was published in the Art Journal, 1865, at which time it would have become known to a wider public – this may have been the source used by the artist of the Salopian plaque.
In the original image, a young mother is shown singing a ballad, her child wrapped in the folds of her shawl on her shoulder. She wears a wedding ring, and on her right arm is a basket of apples and two bottles. The ballad is printed on the sheet she holds, and we see its title is "Sailor’s Wife”, beneath an image of a shipwreck. A garden fence is behind her.
It’s not hard to interpret the painting: a young mother, her husband lost at sea, has entered the front garden of a cottage, and is serenading the occupants with a song, the words of which she holds in her hands. The loss of her husband has forced her to sing, sell apples and whatever is in the bottles she carries, for a few pennies to support herself and her child.
In the image painted on the Salopian plaque, the artist has edited Maclise’s composition, omitting the child, the basket of fruit, the background, and the detail on the ballad sheet.
The identification of the source of the Salopian image as Daniel Maclise’s “The Ballad Singer”, which is also known as “The Ballad Seller”, was made in 2023.
Mark: Impressed SALOPIAN “diamond” mark
Diameter: 450mm / 17.5in
Date: c.1900
Provenance: Private collection, UK
The Ballad Singer, by Daniel Maclise RA, 1858
(also known as The Ballad Seller)
Source of image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Print of the Ballad Singer, by Daniel Maclise RA, 1858, from the Art Journal, 1865
(also known as The Ballad Seller)
This may have been the source of the image used by the artist of the Salopian plaque.
Source of image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons