Monkey pluck figure

The figure was described in P.D. Gordon Pugh’s Staffordshire Portrait Figures book as “Monkey pluck.”
The monkey has a pannier in its back, and a barrel at its side. Legend has it that monkeys were trained by monks to pick the choice, inaccessible, Cloud Mist green tea leaves. These brave monkeys had “monkey pluck”! In truth, monkeys never picked tea, but the idea captured public imagination.

More Figures of the month

Tam O’Shanter and Souter Johnny
This is a rare pair of early figures of Tam O’Shanter and Souter Johnny, characters in the Robert Burns play “Tam O’Shanter”, written in 1790.

A pair of giraffes
This is a fine pair of Staffordshire giraffes, seated below palm trees, each approximately 5 ½” tall. These figures are very rare, dating to approximately 1850.

Old Age
This is a fine pair of early Staffordshire figures portraying “Old Age”. They stand about 8 ¾” tall and date to about 1820.

A pair of pointers
This is a rare pair of Staffordshire foxhounds, pointers, or game dogs. Whatever one decides to call them, they are an unusual and very fine pair.

Reverand Edward Meyrick Goulburn
This is a rare Staffordshire figure of the Reverand Edward Goulburn, standing approximately 11 1/2” tall and dating to about 1860.

Richard Cobden
This is a rare Staffordshire figure of Richard Cobden, the English politician, economist, and leader of the effort to abolish the Corn Laws in 1846.
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