Indian on a Horse tea pot

1978

Individually cast and decorated earthenware & enamel. Mounted on a small green base, this teapot is the first in the horse teapot series.

A tobacco store indian riding towards the sunset on what he presumably thinks is a horse only we know its a teapot.

This tea pot was based on an American tobacco store figure.

"When ship builders moved from wood to iron its figurehead carvers began to carve signs for emerging advertising companies predominantly, tobacco store kitsch indians. It inspired in me great admiration for the ingenuity of mankind. Without sounding too poncy this was a sort of tribute to those carvers."

Ship figureheads represent some of the best naive art there is and there is a good collection at the Cutty Sark in London's Greenwich.