Vintage Cast Iron Elf Doorstop on a Red Spotted Toadstool

Our little elf has been sitting on his toadstool with his chin in his hands for some decades now, and judging by the look on his face, he has heard every excuse going for leaving the door to bang in the draught. Cast in solid iron and painted by hand, he perches on a classic fly agaric toadstool, its red cap dotted with white, the stalk rising from a grassy green base picked out with tiny flowers and golden scrollwork.

Figural cast iron doorstops took off in Victorian Britain, when foundries produced everything from Mr Punch to sleeping cats to hold heavy doors open. The fashion for woodland folk, pixies and gnomes ran right through the twentieth century, helped along by Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies and Enid Blyton’s Toyland, and this little fellow belongs to that long line. Turn him round and you’ll find a neat wedge cast into the back, so he slides snugly under a door rather than simply leaning against it.

He measures 8 x 10 x 8 cm, small enough to sit on a bookshelf or mantelpiece, yet with the satisfying heft only cast iron brings. His paint shows light wear in keeping with his age, mostly around the base edges, which we think only adds to his storybook character.

Use him to prop open a child’s bedroom door, stand him at the foot of the stairs beside a pile of picture books, or let him keep watch in a cottage kitchen next to a jug of spring tulips. He would make a lovely gift for anyone who collects folklore, fairy tale or woodland finds, and he looks particularly at home among moss green, mushroom and soft pink tones.

He doesn’t say much, but he’ll hold the door, and frankly that’s more than most of us manage before our first cup of tea.