This model of an English butcher’s shop is part of a group of items consigned from the estate of a private collector to the June 15 auction of toys held by Pook & Pook in association with Noel Barrett, estimated at $3000-5000.
The shop model features two butchers and numerous carved and realistically painted carcases and cuts of meat. The estimate is $3000-5000.
At Chichester in the UK, Stride & Son sold a butcher’s shop diorama for £14,000 to a London folk art specialist on March 8 (see ATG No 2384).
As noted then, the exact purpose of these carved models is uncertain.
However, as a detailed visual guide to the different cuts of meat available in a typical Victorian butcher’s store, it has been suggested that they were placed in the window when the shop was closed or the weather too hot.
Today they serve as reminders of how meat used to be sold and appeal to lovers of folk art as much as collectors of toys and juvenalia.
