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Description
I made this as a birthday present for my sister, inspired by the accounts of early 18th century 'Puss and Mew' gin dispensers - these would be installed in an external wall of a building, and were used by placing a coin in the cat's mouth, after which the vendor would pour out a measure of gin that would then flow out from a small pipe under the cat's paw. They were a response to the Gin Act of 1736, which attempted to curb the proliferation of gin vendors by requiring anyone selling gin to possess a (very expensive) licence. This indirect method of dispensing gin exploited a loophole in the law, and protected the unseen seller from the informants relied on to report illicit sales.

The first of these was supposedly created by 'Captain' Dudley Bradstreet, a chancer, self-aggrandiser and opportunist, and he mentions them in his memoirs. However, actual evidence for their existence is rather sparse (and the few examples I could find are 20th century recreations as far as I can tell), so they may well be completely apocryphal; as a result I felt I had free rein in coming up with a period-appropriate design of my own.

The cat itself is based on a 17th century woodcut, which I altered a bit to suit the purpose; it's carved in shallow relief and the detail brought out with iron staining for the darker areas and chalk washes for the lighter, and then polished and sealed with beeswax. I made the coin tray and funnel out of sheet brass and brass tubing, shaped and soldered together.

Description
I made this as a birthday present for my sister, inspired by the accounts of early 18th century 'Puss and Mew' gin dispensers - these would be installed in an external wall of a building, and were used by placing a coin in the cat's mouth, after which the vendor would pour out a measure of gin that would then flow out from a small pipe under the cat's paw. They were a response to the Gin Act of 1736, which attempted to curb the proliferation of gin vendors by requiring anyone selling gin to possess a (very expensive) licence. This indirect method of dispensing gin exploited a loophole in the law, and protected the unseen seller from the informants relied on to report illicit sales.

The first of these was supposedly created by 'Captain' Dudley Bradstreet, a chancer, self-aggrandiser and opportunist, and he mentions them in his memoirs. However, actual evidence for their existence is rather sparse (and the few examples I could find are 20th century recreations as far as I can tell), so they may well be completely apocryphal; as a result I felt I had free rein in coming up with a period-appropriate design of my own.

The cat itself is based on a 17th century woodcut, which I altered a bit to suit the purpose; it's carved in shallow relief and the detail brought out with iron staining for the darker areas and chalk washes for the lighter, and then polished and sealed with beeswax. I made the coin tray and funnel out of sheet brass and brass tubing, shaped and soldered together.