A late-Victorian silver novelty figural cruet set

A late-Victorian silver novelty figural cruet set,

by E. C. Brown, London 1878,

with a central pull-out pepper pot modelled as Mr Jorrocks, on a rectangular base, with two flush hinged compartments, engraved with a crest and inscribed 'To S. Adams Feb. 21st 1889 from T.D.G. Carmichael', on four bracket feet, length 11.2cm, height 13.2cm, approx. weight 13.6oz.

Provenance: Purchased from Gerald Sattin Ltd 16th May 1995.

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.