A Staffordshire pearlware 'Death of Munrow' table base group, circa 1825

Hector Sutherland Munro, son of General Sir Hector Munro, 8th Laird of Novar, joined the East India Company's military service as a cadet in 1792, but on his way to Madras the sixteen year old youth was mauled by a tiger whilst hunting on Saugor Island, Bengal on 21 December 1792 and although rescued by his compatriots died the following day. The incident was widely publicised in the British press, The Gentleman's Magazine of July, 1793 records the "awful, horrid, and lamentable accident". His younger brother, Hugh Munro also joined the East India Company as a Writer in 1796, and rose to be a Senior Merchant, Collector and Mintmaster of Bombay, he died in 1814, aboard the Henry Addington, on the journey home from India via China. The youngest brother, Alexander Munro, also joined the East India Company as a cadet in 1803 and died, said to have been devoured by a shark, at Bombay on 12 November 1804.

The tragic story of Hector has become inextricably linked with the famous automaton from the court of Tipu Sultan, known as the Man-Tyger-Organ or Tippoo’s Tiger. Like the Brazen Bull built by Perilaus, this machine was built for the entertainment of the Sultan and would pipe noises which imitated the roars of the tiger and the cries of its victim. Tipu appears to have derived pleasure from the young man's misfortune, perhaps since the victim’s father had commanded a division during Sir Eyre Coote's victory at Porto Novo in 1781 when Tipu and his father, Haidar Ali, had suffered a heavy defeat. Tipu Sultan fiercely resisted attacks on his kingdom by British East India Company army which was extending British rule in India. It fought three wars against Mysore before making the final assault on Tipu's capital, Seringapatam, in 1799. Following the storming of the city the Sultan was killed and the army rampaged through the city leading to a night of indiscriminate looting. Colonel Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, restored order by hanging and flogging some of the men responsible. Tipu's treasury was valued and distributed by a Prize Committee which was established to divide the spoils between the soldiers according to rank, the more valuable items were reserved for the monarch.

The discovery of Tipoo’s Tiger in Mysore was recorded by, Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, in memoranda [1]-

"In a room appropriated for musical instruments was found an article which merits particular notice, as another proof of the deep hate, and extreme loathing of Tippoo Saib towards the English. This piece of mechanism represents a royal Tyger in the act of devouring a prostrate European. There are some barrels in imitation of an Organ, within the body of the Tyger. The sounds produced by the Organ are intended to resemble the cries of a person in distress intermixed with the roar of a Tyger. The machinery is so contrived that while the Organ is playing, the hand of the European is often lifted up, to express his helpless and deplorable condition. The whole of this design was executed by Order of Tippoo Sultaun. It is imagined that this memorial of the arrogance and barbarous cruelty of Tippoo Sultan may be thought deserving of a place in the Tower of London." 

It was also illustrated as the frontispiece to James Salmond’s, A Review of the Origin, Progress and Result, of the Late Decisive War in Mysore with Notes, published in 1800. The organ was transported back to London by 1808 and entered the Company’s museum, known as the India Museum in the City of London. The Company was disbanded in 1858 and 'Tippoo's Tiger' was stored in Fife House, Whitehall until 1868, when it moved to the new India Office, before eventually finding a home in the South Kensington Museum, later the Victoria & Albert Museum. It remains one of the best-known attractions in the Museum. The automaton was prominently displayed in the India Museum and can be seen in engravings of 1841 all of which suggests that it is the popularity of this image and the attraction which inspired Staffordshire potters to produce this group over thirty years after the incident it portrays. The popularity of lions and tigers in earthenware may also have a more symbolic meaning as is commonly seen in later Staffordshire groups which regularly use animals as national symbols, particularly at a time of conflict. This depiction is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable in English ceramic history.

Table base groups in Staffordshire pearl-glazed earthenware are a distinctive and highly prized class of pottery made in the late Georgian era and are discussed in detail in Pat Halfpenny, English Earthenware Figures 1740-1840, Woodbridge, 1991, pp. 261-275. The author argues a convincing timeline for this form using subjects which have quite a narrow dating context, namely the `Red Barn Murder` figures and groups of Maria Marten and William Corder from about 1827-8, Royal portrait busts of William IV and Adelaide (reigned 1830-37) and Teetotal groups (a term which entered the English language in about 1834).

As well as figures from daily life, several groups depict biblical subjects, Christenings and Temperance contrasted with the evils of drink, in keeping with a society in which Wesleyan Methodism was popular; clockface groups inscribed “Prepare to Meet thy God” are also known. However, the most eye-catching groups depicted popular entertainment; bull baiting and scenes such as Wombwell and Polito’s Menageries as well as groups representing more gruesome sibjects, notably the death of a poor individual in the jaws of a savage beast. “The Death of Munrow” shows a market for more popular and exciting subject matter. Bull baiting has been represented in English pottery since the late 18th century and the larger groups with rectangular bases have become associated with the maker Obadiah Sherratt, although no evidence exists to confirm this attribution. The wide range of variants of bull baiting groups suggests several makers are responsible; the present group falls into a narrower category. Common traits are the distinctive splayed feet, moulded floral and leafy swags and impressed titles within navette-shaped panels to the front of the base suggesting a single or a handful of potters, yet unidentified, are responsible for their production. Noteworthy examples in museum collections include a group in the Victoria & Albert Museum (accession number C.1-2007) and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number: 2016.129). A version with a plain rectangular base is in the Willett Collection, Brighton Museum and a rare depiction of the group with a black tiger was sold Sotheby’s, New York, 15th Apr 2004, lot 19.

[1] The St James's Chronicle, April 1800; also reported in the Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury 24 April 1800.