Copeland Parian ware bust of “Love” by Raffaelle Monti, dated 1871

An attractive Copeland Parian ware bust of “Love” by Raffaelle Monti, dated 1871, showing a girl with her head turned to the left and tendrils of hair falling over her left shoulder, with a rose spray tied across her bodice, the reverse stamped ‘R Monti, Sept 1871.
Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art Union, Copeland Copyright Reserved’. English

Footnote. The Crystal Palace Art-Union was founded by Henry Battam of Copeland’s in Staffordshire, England in 1858. Its special purpose ‘was to produce and circulate pure and beautiful examples of British Art Manufacture.’ In 1865 it was renamed the Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art-Union.

Raffaelle Monti (1818–1881) was an Italian sculptor, author and poet born in Milan who was trained by his father, the noted sculptor Gaetano Matteo Monti. He was invited to Vienna for 2 years while aged only 20 and in 1846 travelled to England for a year, but later settled there. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and soon earned recognition as a leading sculptor with his piece for the 6th Duke of Devonshire, the ‘Veiled Vestal’ a figure with an illusionistic veil, a specialism of his. A bust based on this work, cast in Parian porcelain by Copeland titled ‘The Bride’, but often known as ‘The Veiled Bride’, became one of the most popular Parian busts ever produced. His bust of “Love”, manufactured in Parian ware by the Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art Union, was exhibited at the International Exhibition, London 1872.