Boys playing at peg-top in the cloisters at Westminster School

Details

Richard Morton Paye (fl.1773-1821)
Boys playing at peg-top in the cloisters at Westminster School
with signature 'R.M. Paye' (lower left)
oil on canvas
28¼ x 36 in. (71.8 x 91.5 cm.)

Provenance

with Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London.

Literature

E.W. Clayton, 'Richard Morton Paye', The Connoisseur, XXXVII, 1913, p.232, illus. p.236.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The Westminster boys are playing a favourite old game, peg-top; one of the boys has just uncoiled the string setting the turnip shaped top in motion. At least five types of tops, including peg tops, whip tops and hand-spun tops, were known in England by the sixteenth century. The string-driven and whip-driven tops originated in the Far East and were transmitted to Europe via traders.

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