A late-Victorian silver novelty figural cruet set

A late-Victorian silver novelty figural cruet set,

by E. C. Brown, London 1880,

with a central pull-out pepper pot probably modelled as Mr Jorrocks, on a rectangular base, with two flush hinged compartments, on four bracket feet, length 12.5cm, height 13.5cm, approx. weight 14oz.

John Jorrocks Esq. was a comic sporting cockney grocer created by Robert Smith Surtees in 1838 who appeared in Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities in the New Sporting Magazine. Surtees was a passionate devotee of hunting and shooting, and wrote extensively about the subject. He created many other comic sporting personalities, but John Jorrocks was his most popular. The character Stalky in Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co, is considered to have been influenced by Surtees' work.

A similar pair were offered in these Salerooms on the 29 April 2015, lot 594.

They were inscribed 'John Jorrocks Esq. M.F.H,' 'He lectures on 'unting' , the other inscribed 'Thinks he will shoot doleful'.