Although this large and humourous group would appear to be unknown, various artists such as John Henk and Paul Comolera created animal models for Minton; the hole in the back of the female frog would suggest that this group was intended as part of a larger composition, in the manner of the fountain (17ft. high) made up of rocks, palm trees, storks and figures, modelled by Paul Comolera and exhibited at the 1878 EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE in Paris; it was, perhaps, this piece which invited the accolade printed in the Illustrated London News that (Minton) 'majolica ware seems to improve continually as regards taste in ornamentation'; animals have long been used in literature, in the tradition of Aesop's Fables, to personify and also to satirise human emotions and morals; illustrations of these can also be seen applied in the field of interior design, in 1875, William Burges commenced work on the interior of Castell Coch for the Marquis of Bute, the drawing room was painted by Charles Campbell with scenes from Aesop's Fables, cf. Jeremy Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors, pls. 125 and 127; Burges had been known to voice approval of the use of such brightly coloured industrial materials as Minton majolica on the exterior of buildings