Old King Cole

Christmas Cole – Fiddling Angels

Wendy Watson paired Old King Cole with a rhyme beginning “Christmas comes but once a year,” and carried the holiday theme into the Cole image. Here we see a young King Cole with his family apparently getting ready for a Christmas pageant. The fairly lean father is stuffing a pillow into his shirt to add to his girth. The bowl and the pipe are on the floor behind him; his wife is ready to place a crown on his head; and three young girls with headband crowns and fiddles in hand stand waiting. This king had better pull in his tongue before he attempts to tie on the beard hanging on the mirror. Unlike the other illustrations for Old King Cole, this picture is one of warm domesticity.