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A Small Boy, Fully Committed to the Bit
He is marching. Coat buttoned, chin up, a stick shouldered like a carbine, and on his head an enormous white plume that is doing most of the work. Behind him a paling fence, a tree in pink blossom, and a cottage roof off to the right. Across the top in small capitals: THE YOUNG DRAGOON.
That plume is the joke and the point. Dragoons started out as mounted infantry, but by the nineteenth century the British dragoon regiments were heavy cavalry — the ones in the towering plumed helmets that stopped traffic on a parade route. Every boy in England knew that silhouette. So this child has assembled the whole impression out of a coat with yellow facings, a stick, and something white and magnificent stuck to his head, and the potter thought it was worth putting on a mug.
Printed in black and hand-colored over the top in chrome yellow, soft green, and rose. The color is applied fast and loose, landing outside the lines through the blossoms and the grass — which is exactly right, and exactly what a period piece should look like. The mug is straight-sided with a simple applied loop handle. Unmarked on the base, standard for children's ware of this kind, with a remnant of an old paper label still adhered. English, Staffordshire district, [mid-19th century].
Small pottery like this belongs where you'll see it daily. Stand it on a kitchen windowsill with a few pencils in it. Set it on a shelf beside your alphabet plates so the whole group reads as one collection rather than a run of plates. Or put it on a desk holding paperclips and let it be the only thing on the desk with a personality.
Size: 2.75" tall × 3.75" wide across the handle.
Condition: Well-used and honest about it. A small chip on the rim — shown in the photos. Crazing over the entire surface, inside and out, with the lines darkened and staining throughout, heaviest around the rim and interior. Several small chips at the base of the cup as well. Speckling and grime settled into the unglazed foot ring. General wear to the transfer and the hand-coloring. An old paper label remnant on the base. [Confirm: no cracks or hairlines, and whether the handle shows any repair at either join.] The title and the figure read clearly. Please study every photo closely; they're part of the description.
Handpicked because it survived being a child's actual cup, which most of them didn't. Carefully packed with love and sent on its way to you.
