Object of the Day: Boy with Macaroni Dog, 1775

Boy with Macaroni Dog
1775
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This isn't like the "Fusilli Jerry." This adorable figure by William Duesbury & Co. (manufacturer) is rendered in soft-paste porcelain and painted with enamels and gilding. It depicts a boy with a Macaroni dog.


What makes him a Macaroni Dog? Well, he is dressed in fanciful costume inasmuch Ashe has an elaborate cocked hat on its head.

Macaroni, in mid-18th century England when and where this figure was made, was a term used to refer to a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner and who, in doing so, exceeded the bounds of fashion. So, this dog's hat makes him something of a dandy. But he's cute enough to get away with it.