SHAKESPEARE INTEREST. A VICTORIAN MULBERRY GOBLET

SHAKESPEARE INTEREST. A VICTORIAN MULBERRY GOBLET

IN THE MANNER OF JOHN MARSHALL, DATED '1880'

with turned and carved decoration, the base inscribed 'Mulberry Wood From Shakespeare's Tree At New-Place 1880', the underside also stamped 'Stratford on Avon 1880' and with a handwritten paper label, inscribed 'Made from Mulberry Tree, Shakespeare's Garden at Stratford on Avon'

20.5cm high

Catalogue Note

During the 18th century, there was an informal tourist industry in Stratford with people visiting Shakespeare's tomb and the mulberry tree he supposedly planted at New Place. However, the then owner Rev. Francis Gastrell became annoyed by the growing number of visitors and sometime in the 1750's felled the tree and later demolished New Place. Objects carved from the mulberry tree first started to appear around 1760 / 1770, after Gastrell sold the wood to local carvers and turners, for example: Thomas Sharp and George Cooper, eager to make souvenirs. At this period of 'bardolatry' drinking vessels, tea caddies, tobacco stoppers, goblets, small boxes or caskets, and similar objects carved from the wood were highly prized.