Vintage Cast Iron Two Piglets Doorstop in Pink with Gold Scrolls

Two piglets have settled down together on a grassy bank, the smaller one tucked in behind with his chin resting on his sibling's back. They are as pink as sugared almonds and look perfectly content to stay exactly where they are, which is all you could ask of a doorstop.

They are solid cast iron and painted by hand, with black eyes and snouts, a fringe of green grass and dark plum leaves rising behind them. The base is black, picked out with gold scrolls across the front. The casting is hollow at the back, with a long flat tab that slides under the door to hold it steady. It measures 8cm by 8.5cm, one of the smallest doorstops we have, and just right for a bedroom or cupboard door where a big one would be in the way.

Little pigs have been part of British childhood for centuries, from the nursery rhyme This Little Piggy, first printed in the eighteenth century, to the storybook pigs that followed. These two have exactly that storybook look, and they would be very much at home in a child's room.

The paint is bright and in lovely condition for its age, with a couple of tiny chips to the ears and along the edge of the base, and light wear to the white paint on the tab and inside the back.

Prop them by a bedroom door, sit them on a bookshelf beside a row of picture books, or give them as a present to a new baby, a pair of siblings or anyone with a soft spot for pigs. They also make good company for our other pigs if you have the start of a collection.