Small Victorian Parian bust of Clytie, a Greek water nymph and symbol of unrequited love..  Unmarked and in very good condition with no visible damage or restoration.   

Dimensions: H22cm W20cm D12cm

About Clytie:  Clytie was a name given to a number of figures in Greek mythology. However, the best known character with that name was an Oceanid. As an Oceanid, a water nymph, she was the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. She was the lover of the sun god Helios, who eventually deserted her to pursue Leucothea, daughter of Orchamus. Clytie was enraged and told Orchamus about the love affair. He sentenced his daughter to death by burying her alive. Clytie thought that the death of Leucothea would make Helios return back to her, but it only made him think even less of her. In the end, Clytie lay herself naked for nine days on the rocks, simply staring at the sun, without drinking or eating anything. On the ninth day, she was transformed into a flower, the heliotrope or turnsole, which turns towards the direction of the sun.

About Parian Ware:  it was very popular with the Victorians.  By the end of the 19th Century, every Victorian parlour would have had at least one piece of it, typically small-scale copies of busts of literary and political figures, as well as its decorative vases, boxes and figures. 

Potters made Parian statues by slip-casting. They poured liquid porcelain, or slip, into a mold and allowed it to harden enough to coat the walls of the mold. They then poured out the excess, creating a thin-walled, hollow form.

Potteries all over Britain produced Parian pieces. Leading makers included Copeland, Minton, Worcester, Wedgwood, Goss, and Robinson and Leadbeater. Much of the statuary was copies of the work of the period’s finest artists, who approved of the reproduction of their art in Parian.Generally, only the major Parian makers marked their pieces and then it is only usually statuary.   Many non-statuary pieces weren’t marked at all.