Vintage Cast Iron Standing Pig Doorstop in Cream on a Black and Gold Plinth

Here is a pig who takes his position seriously. He stands four square on a tuft of green grass, ears up and snout forward, with the solid, well fed look of a prize winner at the county show, and he has been given a plinth to match.

He is solid cast iron and painted by hand in soft cream, with small dark eyes and a black tip to his snout. The grass is picked out in two greens, and the plinth beneath is painted black with gold lining and raised scrollwork panels on each side. He is hollow cast at the back, with a flat tab at the bottom that slips under the door to keep it steady. He measures 11.5cm by 9.5cm by 6cm, small enough for a cottage door and handsome enough for a shelf.

Prize livestock was a much loved subject in Victorian Britain, when proud farmers had their best pigs and cattle painted for posterity, and cast iron doorstops of farm animals were made for homes across the country. This little fellow has something of both, plinth and all.

His paint is in good order overall, with light wear to the tips of his ears and snout, a few small chips along the edges of the plinth, and some rubbing where the cream has thinned across his back. The hollow back is painted white, with small chips around the rim.

Keep him by the pantry door, set him on a dresser shelf among blue and white china, or pair him with our spotted pig for a little farmyard of your own. He would also make a fine present for anyone who has ever said they would like to keep pigs one day.