Turkey: "Marvel of the Month"

In honor of Thanksgiving, being celebrated in the United States today, I show you, of course, a turkey. This fine fowl (4.3 inches tall) is the only enamel-painted pearlware turkey I have recorded, and it comes to us courtesy of the Hunt Collection in which it resides.

Courtesy the Collection of William Herbert and Nancy Hunt.

Turkeys started in America, in a way. In fact, the turkey is native to America and was introduced into Europe in the sixteenth century. In 1621, turkey was on the menu at the very first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation, and turkey has been a Thanksgiving staple since. Good things always spread, so turkey has become synonymous with festive meals in both the US and UK.

I don't think the thought of a festive meal inspired the potting of this little turkey. Instead, I suspect the arrival of a Honduras turky at the London Zoological Gardens in 1831 was the cause. The event, believe it or not, caused quite a stir.The New Monthly Magazine  ironically dubbed the turkey “The Marvel of the Month” and noted that fifty thousand people had flocked to see it in a two-month period.

We are startled when we hear of meetings of twenty or thirty thousand persons, to petition for parliamentary purification; yet in the very midst of this awful and ominous commotion, here are not less than fifty thousand hearts set beating with exultation at the arrival of a turkey from Honduras. Had they been invited to dine upon it, they could hardly have been more eager.

Who made this turkey? I have no way of proving an attribution, but I have a strong gut feeling that Samuel Hall was the potter. As you enjoy your festive turkey this holiday, think back to a simpler time, when the arrival of a mere bird at a zoo drew crowds numbering into the tens of thousands.