Figure of the Day: A Donkey Stealing Carrots, c. 1925

A Donkey Stealing Carrots
Stella R. Crofts, 1925-1930
The Victoria & Albert Museum

When I first began writing about this earthenware figure from about 1925, I misread the title from the listing in the V&A and was under the mistaken impression that the piece was called, “A Donkey Selling Carrots.” This caused me to wonder why and how an ass would sell carrots. Wouldn’t a mule be more inclined to eat carrots, to take them? Well, yes. As it turns out, the name of this “maiolica”-glazed piece is actually “A Donkey Stealing Carrots.” This makes considerably more sense. 


Made in Ilford, England between 1925 and 1930, the figure depicts a boy on a donkey who is in the process of stealing carrots. This is the work of Stella R. Crofts. A version of this figure was shown in the Government Pavilion of the Paris 1925 Exhibition. The model design was later sold by Crofts to Worcester in 1931, who reproduced the group under the considerably less interesting title “Boy with Donkey.”