A STAFFORDSHIRE PEARLWARE GROUP OF POLITO'S MENAGERIE CIRCA 1830-35

modeled as a fairground booth with musicians and other figures standing beneath a marquee molded in relief with an elephant, a tiger, a lion and two monkeys in trees, inscribed around the edge 'POLITOS ROYAL MENAGERIE OF THE WONDERFULL BURDS AND BEASTS FROM MOST PARTS OF THE WORLD LION & C.' Restored.

One of the earliest traveling menageries exhibiting exotic and wild animals, Polito's, is mentioned by E. H. Bostock in Menageries, Circuses and Theatres, pp. 7-9, where the author includes an excerpt from the September 28, 1805 Nottingham Journal advertising "Polito's grand and pleasing assemblage of most rare and beautiful living birds and beasts, from the remotest parts of the known world..." By 1810 Polito was managing the Exeter Change menagerie. He died in April 1814 but his original travelling menagerie continued operating under his name until 1835 or 1836, when, according to Bostock, it was lost at sea on its way to Ireland.