One of my favourite ceramic sculptures in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust collection is a large figure of Titania embracing Bottom, a gleaming white ceramic creation in Royal Copenhagen porcelain.
Like the Titania in the George Romney painting, 'Titania Reposing with Her Indian Votaries,' this queen of the fairies is sensual and serene. The painting is featured below and currently on display in the Shakespeare’s Women exhibition. Unlike Romney’s Titania (who gives the viewer a distinctly ‘come hither’ look), this Titania is blissfully unaware of the onlooker, caught up in the rapture of her enchanted love for Bottom.
The figure was presented to the Trust in 1964 by the Government of Denmark in celebration of the opening of the Shakespeare Centre in 1964. For many years, it has only graced a table in the conference room, but at the end of October, it is being transferred to the re-vamped ‘Web of Life’ exhibition on the first floor of Nash’s House to be appreciated by a wider audience.
Titania is the subject of the latest blog by Stanley Wells on Blogging Shakespeare.