Description
Antique Staffordshire pottery pearlware glaze stirrup cup in the form a hare head. The piece is in unrestored condition, Staffordshire pottery period circa 1810/20.
EXHIBITION….IF THESE POTS COULD TALK.
This rather charming and amost Disneyesque hares head hides a darker side in todays more enlightened world.
The piece is actually made as a cup and would have been used to drink a warming alcholic beverage before commencing the rural sporting event, in this case hare coursing.
A hare would be released in a large field and given a short start before two sporting greyhounds were unleashed to try and to catch it before it reached safety underground. I have seen films of this “sport” and I am pleased to say that the hare did elude the greyounds on some occasions.
Hare coursing is now banned in the UK but was very popular in the 18th and 19th century.
The hare head can be placed under the heading of Stirrup cups which were mainly associated with fox hunting. Some cups were made in the shape of a salmons head. Early stirrup cups can form a wonderful collection,there are many different examples of wily foxes and trusty hounds modelled and decorated in very fine detail. Perhaps the rarest of its type is the hares head.