Doe and Hope

Description

The beautifully weathered cast stone whippet displaying the original time worn paint and glaze, with the hound being black and having a gold collar, to a plinth base with canted corners, the whole surviving from the second quarter of twentieth century England.

The condition of the whole is pleasing with a good even spread of weathering commensurate with exposure to the elements giving it an evocative all-round character and colour. There are nibbled losses and chips, with the nose having some loss to the tip please refer to the photographs for a full visual reference.

Probably once part of a pair, there are more modern stone interpretations of the whippet on the market but fewer of this date line and fewer still with such superb original time-worn paintwork and texture most being bare stone.

Whippets were bred to hunt by sight, coursing game in open areas at high speeds. One can find numerous representations of small greyhound-like hounds in art dating back to Ancient Egyptian times. Pharaohs bred a small sighthound dog related to the greyhound to keep in their palaces, and this dog may be the ancestor of today's Whippets. In medieval England, a small greyhound breed became popular for use as a ratting dog. The first written English use of the word whippet with regard to a type of dog was in 1610.

A highly decorative piece for the garden or indeed the home.