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 Portrait Painter design is apparently not so easy to find these days ...
This artwork is the artist with Mother Rabbit and baby rabbit "sitting" for the painting, Mother holding a bunch of flowers. While looking closely at the painting, just near baby Rabbit is an "object" which looks to be something like a water bottle. I looked all over the decoration for hidden "little creatures" (such as a mouse or even a butterfly) but none found HOWEVER I can see something that doesn't look quite right ...
In the painting, near the right side of Mother's neck is some painting which looks out of place and my wife swears it is the letters W H (Walter Hayward) - it is quite indistinct though.
ROYAL DOULTON - Child's Saucer ONLY
Fine China
Opaque, meaning that if you hold the saucer up to a bright light you cannot see a shadow of your fingers through the material
Bunnykins Series
Royal Doulton design ID: SF20
Name: PORTRAIT PAINTER
Design created by Walter Hayward
Original design creation date: 1952
Saucer
Cream (almost a Honey Cream) background - this is the "earlier" colouring whereas later Bunnykins china 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: 142mm diameter with a central depression for the cup measuring 45~50mm diameter
Weight: 140g
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 saucer
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Clean
NO cracks
NO chips
NO discolouration marks to the background or decorations
NO crazing (wet test applied, nothing shows up at all - which frankly amazed me)
Ah ha! Nothing is perfect after 75 years of use and this saucer does have a couple of issues ... nothing major but issues none-the-less
a) obvious wear to the central area decorations, particularly around the central depression rim for the cup.
b) a couple of very light, short scratches or knife marks
c) Three fleabites to the underside, one being close to the rim but it has not developed into a chip
Reasonable condition example of an early Bunnykins designed by Walter.
