Lot 17: A STAFFORDSHIRE PEARLWARE GROUP OF POLITO'S MENAGERIE CIRCA 1835

DETAILED DESCRIPTION modeled as a fairground booth with an organ-grinder, his monkey, other musicians and a woman with a muff at the door standing beneath a backdrop molded in relief with an elephant and howdah, a lion, a tiger and two monkeys, inscribed around the edge POLITOS ROYAL MENAGERIE OF THE WONDERFULL BURDS AND BEASTS FROM MOST PARTS OF THE WORLD: LION &C. PUBLISHED CONDITION NOTE Minor chips, repair and restoration. CATALOGUE NOTE Reports of the exotic wildlife found in the New Worlds by eighteenth-century travellers and explorers stimulated the Englishman's natural interest in animals, and travelling fairs and menageries provided most people with the opportunity to see examples of these fantastic creatures. One of the earliest travelling menageries in Britain, Polito's, is mentioned by E. H. Bostock in Menageries, Circuses and Theatres, pp. 7-9, where the author includes an excerpt from the September 28, 1805 edition of the Nottingham Journal advertising "Polito's grand and pleasing assemblage of most rare and beautiful living beasts, from the remotest parts of the known world...". By 1810 Polito was managing the Exeter Exchange menagerie. He died in April 1814 but his original travelling menagerie continued operating under his name until 1835 or 1836, when, according to Bostock, it was lost at sea on its way to Ireland, an event possibly prompting the creation of the Staffordshire pottery model. A similar model of Polito's Menagerie from the Collection of Dorothy Hirshon was sold in these rooms on September 26, 1998, lot 233. A larger version of the same menagerie from the Estate of S. Carter Burden was also sold in these rooms, October 26, 2002, lot 1531, and another from the Hope McCormick Collection was sold at Christie's, New York, January 21, 2003, lot 17.

<p>11 7/8 in. (30.1cm)</p>