Paddy and the Pig

Man w/ green hat riding a pig w/ a red blanket

Model: 500
Type: People
Topic: Circus & Clowns
Country of manufacture: Germany
Mechanism: Clockwork
Movement: moves in circles backwards and forwards, the pig tilts, causing Paddy to move his trunk
Materials: Tin
Dimensions (LxWxH cm): 14x6x14
Condition: Very Good
Manufactured: 1903 – 1933
Box: 800

Research notes

Pats: USA May 12 (1903), April 25 (1905), Jan 22 (1907); DRP Feb 15 145861 (1903) 147496; there three patents allowed to achieve its erratic movement. Instead of just rolling forward, the mechanism forced the pig to suddenly stop, reverse, and buck wildly. Dancing on pigs was a popular circus atraction in 1900; also, during the Victorian-era debates over Irish Home Rule, cartoonists used "Paddy" to represent an ignorant Irish peasant, while the uncooperative pig symbolized a backward agricultural Ireland; there is na Irish expression: "as Irish as Paddy's pig"; at its peak production around 1910, the company was manufacturing over 15,000 "Dancing Pigs" a year