The Reaper and The Flowers, after Louis Auguste Malempre, Copeland, for The Ceramic and Crystal P

The Reaper and The Flowers, after Louis Auguste Malempre, Copeland, for The Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art Union, published 1875, as an angel upholding a sleeping child, impressed title to the front, impressed factory and "A75", incised "L A Malempre Sc 1875", 58.5cm high This figure is illustrated in Copeland (Robert) Parian, Copeland's Statuary Porcelain, Antique Collectors Club, p.119, where it is described as being named after the last verse of Longfellow's poem of that name which accompanied the original marble sculpture; this was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874. Longfellow tries to dispel the notion that death is inevitably a fearsome thing by emphasising that flowers amidst the "bearded grain". The last verse reads: "O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, the Reaper came that day; twas an angel visited the green earth, and took the flowers away".