Description:
Red earthenware clay hand formed whistle in the shape of a large bird possibly a cockoo roosted on a hoizonatal rod-shaped perch on a conical stump with two smaller birds on the left and right side, perch has a lower level with two small birds on it to the left and right, at the base of the stump are four circular prunts with three raised dots or circles, the figure is coated all over with lead glaze and vertical streaks of manganese. A similar example (near identical in molding, not coloring) to this bird whistle appears in the Burnap Collection of English Pottery, by Ross Taggart, (Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, KA), 1967, p. 34, no. 65 and in The English Country Pottery by Peter Brears. . It is listed as a bird whistle (part of a pair) made in Staffordshire, England, c. 1800 - 1820. There is also a similar example in the Winterthur Collection which is slip decorated. (Winterthur 1960.0530) Condition: damaged and conserved.

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