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Model butcher's shop
Unknown - Enlarge image
Model butcher's shop
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
ca. 1850 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Carved wood, painted; in a walnut veneered case
- Museum number:
W.58-1929
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The most common type of butchers' shop is a cased model in a wooden frame similar to this example which dates from about 1860. No one is really sure of the purpose of the models. We can see that they provided a useful visual guide to the different cuts of meat available. Today they serve as reminders of how meat used to be sold. It has been suggested that they were placed in the window when the shop was closed or the weather hot as a trade sign. When refrigeration became available they would no longer have been necessary, though it is possible that some are still in use. One was seen in a butcher's shop in Southgate, London, shortly before the shop closed in the late 1980s.
