Parian ware bust of General Gordon Accession Number: REL23558

Description

Small parian ware bust of General Charles Gordon as Governor of Sudan. 'GORDON' is embossed beneath the bust. The bust is not glazed but the base is. There are remains of gold paint on the top and bottom of the base.

Contextual Description

General Charles ‘Chinese’ Gordon was born at Woolwich, London on 28 January 1833, the son of Major General Henry William Gordon and Elizabeth Enderby. At 15 he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. In 1852 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He was promoted to full lieutenant in 1854. Gordon e served in the Crimean War in 1854, and in China, where he took command of the ‘Ever Victorious Army’ in 1863. He was promoted to the rank of titu – one of the highest ranks in the Chinese Army by the Chinese Emperor. The British promoted him to lieutenant colonel and he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He later served in North Africa, including Egypt. In the early 1880s the British-backed Egyptian regime in the Sudan was threatened by an indigenous rebellion under the leadership of Muhammed Ahmed, known to his followers as 'the Mahdi'. In 1883 the Egyptian government, with British acquiescence, sent an army south to crush the revolt. Instead of destroying the Mahdi's forces, the Egyptians were soundly defeated, leaving their government with the problem of extricating the survivors. The difficulties of evacuating their forces in the face of a hostile enemy quickly became apparent, and the British were persuaded to send Gordon, to consider the means by which the Egyptian troops could be safely withdrawn. Disregarding his instructions, Gordon sought instead to delay the evacuation and defeat the Mahdi; like the Egyptians, Gordon failed and found himself besieged in Khartoum. The popular general's predicament stirred public opinion in England, leading to demands for an expeditionary force to be dispatched to his rescue. The relief force was sent from Cairo in September 1884, but it did not arrive in Khartoum until 28 January 1885, two days after Gordon had been killed, on 26 January. He had been beheaded and his head displayed on a pike by the Mahdi’s soldiers. Even before his death, Gordon was a figure of heroic proportions in England, and his exploits were well known throughout the British Empire. When his death became known, it caused high feeling amongst the British public. Many souvenirs commemorating Gordon were made and the painting ‘General Gordon's Last Stand’ by George William Joy, showed a romantic and popular interpretation of Gordon’s death – even though the exact circumstances of his death were unknown. Parian busts like this one were a popular item during the Victorian period. They were made of a highly vitrified version of soft paste porcelain that could be poured into a mould and fired once to harden them, producing a finely detailed figure at relatively little cost. The busts were meant to resemble those made from the high quality marble from the Greek Island of Paros, which only the the wealthy could afford. Parian ware was not glazed, although some examples were painted in lifelike colours.

Details

Conflicts

• 19th century

Places

• Sudan

Tags

• Souvenirs