Farmer Hamish Sitting French Provincial Pig Statue in Gumboots, Rust Cast Iron 22.5cm

A pig in a straw hat and four gumboots, sitting down for a minute.

Farmer Hamish is a pig cast in solid iron and finished in a natural rust patina, sitting upright on his haunches in a wide straw sun hat with a rubber gumboot on each of his four feet. He weighs 4 kg, which is the difference between cast iron and the resin pieces that copy this shape. The casting carries the weave of the hat brim, the tread and pull-tabs on the boots and the creases across his shoulders.

At 22.5cm tall and 25cm across he sits about the size of a large cat, low and solid and best met at ground level. He is built for outdoor life: the weight keeps him upright in wind, and the rust patina is a finish rather than a fault, so weather deepens him instead of wearing him out.

Why we love it

• ◆The gumboots, four of them, properly cast with tread and pull-tabs, which is the detail everyone picks up first
• ◆The straw hat, the weave worked right across the brim rather than smoothed into a disc
• ◆The weight, 4 kg of solid cast iron, so children and weather both leave him where he is
• ◆The rust patina, deep amber across the back and the hat, russet in the creases, and it only improves outdoors

How to style it

He is a low, wide piece with the joke at ground level, so resist putting him up high.

• Sit him at the foot of a doorway or on a bottom step
• Set him in a vegetable bed or beside a potting bench, which is where he belongs
• Put him at the edge of a lawn where people walk past close
• Pair him with Farmer Hamish Standing, the same character on all four feet
• Group him with the rest of our garden sculptures

Care & Keeping

Wipe with a soft dry cloth to lift dust out of the weave of the hat and around the boot tops. The rust patina is a finished surface and needs no sealing. Place a felt pad or a saucer underneath on pale stone or painted timber, and keep harsh chemical cleaners and abrasive pads away from him.

Because Farmer Hamish is hand-finished, slight variations in patina, texture, and grain are natural and add to the unique character of each piece. Colour may also vary slightly between screens, all photography is taken in natural light.