Vintage Indian Hand Painted Tin Rooster in Green and Black

He stands with one foot forward, chest out and comb up, as if he has just spotted the sunrise and wants the whole kitchen to know about it. Our vintage tin rooster was cut from sheet metal, gently shaped so his body and tail have a little curve to them, and then painted entirely by hand on both sides.

Look closely at the tail and you can follow every brushstroke: sweeps of apple green and deep teal, finished with fine black lines for the feather quills. His neck is washed in mustard and burnt orange, his head is glossy black with a bright white eye, and the red comb, wattle and beak are picked out with neat white outlines. Bold red legs, striped in black, carry him down to an oval black base with a yellow painted rim.

Underneath, his original paper label still reads B.E. Made in India, with a handwritten code number. Painted tin birds and animals like this were made by Indian craftsmen for export in the later twentieth century, and they sit happily alongside other painted folk art and toleware.

He stands 23cm high, 26cm from beak to tail and 12.5cm deep across the base, and weighs a light 320g.

He would look wonderful on a kitchen windowsill, on an open shelf beside a stack of blue and white plates, or on a dresser next to a jug of garden flowers. We styled him with coral, old books and dried hydrangeas for the photographs. Pair him with painted trays or a toleware planter and you have the beginnings of a very cheerful collection.

As you would expect from a piece this age, there are small areas of paint loss to the edges of the comb, beak and tail where the bare metal shows through, a few light scuffs to the body, and some surface marks and rust spots on the underside of the base. None of it takes anything away from his swagger, and he stands steady on his base.