HISTORY:
Another Bunnykins from my wife's collection, this item being excess to her collection and she now wants a new home found for this piece.
Designed by Walter Hayward (Art Director), this "Ring-A-Ring O' Roses" design is apparently also not so easy to find these days ... actually GOOD quality early Bunnykin's in general is becoming difficult and quite expensive to purchase in the Doulton marketplace, according to "she who knows all".
This artwork centres around five young rabbits (three boys in Red jackets and two girls in dresses) playing the game Ring-A-Ring O' Rosie. Mother rabbit is looking on with a further two younger "boy rabbits". Nice quaint thatched roof cottage in the background. No mice, no butterflies or birds in this scene but one thing that did strike me is that although the girls and Mother are wearing very nice dresses, the boys ONLY wear jackets - no pants! I don't know if there is a hidden meaning here or perhaps I am just over-analysing the scene!
ROYAL DOULTON - Child's Porridge Bowl
Fine China
Opaque, meaning that if you hold the bowl up to a bright light (carefully as this is quite heavy!) you cannot see a shadow of your fingers through the material
Bunnykins Series
Royal Doulton design ID: SF21
Name: RING-A-RING O' ROSES
Popular children's outdoor game at the time although I don't see children playing this game these days, too busy on their mobile devices to play "real games" and quite frankly, a rather morbid history to the rhyme! Unfortunately the history of this game is a bit on the "dark side", relating to the Black Plague back in the 14th Century, England in particular. If you contracted the "Black Death", the last thing you would be doing is playing this game, except for the part "A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down" (Dead) The "Ring Of Roses" actually referred to a Red rash that would appear upon contraction of the dreaded "Black Death" (The Plague) - not a bed of roses!
Design created post Barbara Vernon by Walter Hayward (Art Director)
Original design creation date: 1952
Porridge Bowl
Cream (almost a Honey Cream) background - this is the "earlier" colouring whereas in later years Bunnykins products became much more White looking.
Decoration looks to be a hybrid of handcrafting and transfer decoration, I can clearly see (when examined with a magnifying glass) solid brush strokes but also "dot (all varying sizes, not the same as with a modern printer) in-fills" for the various details inside the outlines.
Measures: 151mm diameter x 25mm deep
Recessed sides to allow for easier, safer lifting - remember these bowls often had HOT Porridge inside!
Very thick walls, this helps prevent skin burns when holding the sides of the bowl and helps with stability on the child's table top.
Weight: 535g (HEAVY)
BACKSTAMP DETAILS:
This backstamp was used from 1952 until approximately the early 1960's (my wife declares that this piece has one of the earlier backstamps from the Bunnykin's Series).
Here is a photograph of the actual backstamp on this porridge bowl
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Clean
NO cracks
NO chips
NO fleabites
NO discolouration marks to the background or decorations
NO crazing (wet test applied, nothing shows up at all - which frankly amazed me)
Ah ha! This bowl has seen some use over the years, as evidenced by spoon scratching in various areas of the decoration inside the bowl. Overall, these scratches (which have damaged the artwork where the scratch crosses over a piece of the artwork) are number just a few and none are obviously visually to the casual glance. In our opinion this is absolutely normal for a piece of tableware that has actually been in use over the last 70+ years - to expect perfection is not living in the real world, these were originally purchased to be used, not be on "show"
Take a look at the photographs, you can see the scratching but it is not terrible.
Early (ish) Bunnykins designed by Walter which is in a reasonable condition.
