These are perhaps the most successful of all the early Derby animal figures, the spirted modelling carefully observed from nature suggests a sculptor of considerable skill.

J.V.G Mallet suggests that these goats are of a standard that one might expect from Carlini and points out that he could be an excellent modeller of animals, citing a plaster model of an equestrian statue of George III of 1769 that survives in the Royal Academy (Mallet 2003, p. 48). 

Exhibited:
‘Early English White Sculptural Porcelain’, The Paul and Bunny Davies Collection, E & H Manners, 2020, no. 22

Provenance:
E & H Manners and Simon Spero in 1994

References:
J.V.G. Mallet, ‘Agostino Carlini and Dry-Edge Derby’, British Ceramic Design 1600-2002, The English Ceramic Circle, (2003)
For a similar pair in the Norman C. Ashton Collection, see Christie’s, 6 June 1988, lot 252

Condition:
Billy goat: restoration to neck, right ear, tip of left ear and upper sections of horns
Nanny goat: neatly through neck, restoration to ears, horns and tip of tail

Price: £9,000