Description:
Rectangular plain creamware tea canister with identically molded panels on each side with a depiction of a scene from John Gay's Fables, The Gardener and the Hog (1727). This fable tells the story of a gardener who cosseted a hog which led to the beast getting drunk, ruining the flower beds, and attacking its master; the moral being: "He who cherishes a brutal mate shall mourn the folly soon or late." The gardener holds up a large shovel in preparation to strike the hog; the hog bites the gardener on the leg, the scene is set in an English garden with a large urn placed on a plinth to the right and a balustrade, there are trees in the background, the lower edge of the canister is stamped with circles; the upper pediment of the canister has a molded and applied mask of a boy and on the shoulders of the canister are applied leaves, the canister has lost its cover, Condition: a hairline crack to side extending from the corner of the canister through one panel of the piece and chips to lower rim.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2015.30

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