Rare antique and unique Huebach bulldog

Hi there readers as always I wish you all well where ever you may be.

I’ve woken to a lovely day with beautiful blue sky and the seagulls are bobbing lazily up and down out on the sea, I know this as its the view from my bedroom (lucky me).

And as its a beautiful day I thought I would do a blog on some amazing and beautiful bulldogs and I’ve picked Germany to show you some of the work their artisans produced.

Let’s remember that Germany is a massive country and once had 1000s of factories making bulldogs of all kinds and of bulldog figurines and as I’m not fluent in German I think it’s best this blog is seen as informal because even with spell check I would most probably get names and makers wrong but let’s see how it goes and please excuse any language mishaps.

When you get to a certain point in your field you think you may of seen it all and I was like that till this piece popped up last year in auction, from the Huebach brothers and working under the Kunst name they designed and created this masterpiece of bulldog beauty.

If your a bulldog owner this pose will be very familiar to you it normally comes with the stink eye but this fella looks like he’s quietly dozing comfortably but whilst forgetting to lay down, he stands (sits) at around 9 inches measured from back to head and is painted in a traditional two colour pied tone with a glossy finish.

It’s not often you see bulldog figurines in such poses don’t get me wrong there’s lots of bulldogs sitting but just not many that capture the essence of the bulldog in such a relaxed state.

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Sticking with the Huebach brothers but at a different factory i.e. Gerbruder where they designed and put out this piece.

A mass produced good quality bulldog figurine best describes these and all are of the same pose except the standing bulldog figurine.

The colours of this bulldog are mostly all the same with that pastel greyish colour and a couple with a back spot patina and ranging in the size they come in.

I first started to notice the size difference between these wonderful figurines when the big piece arrived one day and I must of missed the measurements because I was shocked (pleasantly) when I got the bulldog out of the box, I’m not sure if they came as sets but the different sizes make for a great picture and as a set they really hold their own amongst the rest.

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Goebel and Royal Goebel bulldog figurines

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Crown Goebel and Goebel are the same factory and became crown Goebel when honoured to be asked to do commissioned work for the German Royal Household in the early 1900s, these are a couple of examples from this porcelain manufacturing company.

The largest single piece is about a foot in length from the head down the back and about 6 inches high, the colours are the two patches on the head and spotted on the Body.

I do not know the designer but if you compare the head to the Huebach set there is a resemblance and could of been designed by them but that’s just my opinion and not fact.

The second is not a piece but a set there’s mum dad and little baby too, these are just Goebel and can be found quite easy on many a popular auction site but be warned there are many copied versions and obtaining a set may find you buying separate pieces with the proper stamp on.

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Hutschenrouther the artists difference

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Whilst learning about European porcelain its history and the hardships faced sometimes back then like paint shortages when countries were at conflict and no sales when I recessions I also learned that good things happened when a powerhouse manufacture takes on a commissioned artist, the difference and quality between the in house artists and the artist in residence is astonishing and my example comes from one of Germany’s largest companies and one of Germany’s past finest porcelain artists.

Hutschenrouther was the or part of one of the biggest in Germany and they churned out ceramics in high quantities pieces like ashtrays humidors and other useful objects were made along side the figurines seen here.

One artist to join this factory for a while was a man called Karl Tutter and you can really see how he out mastered the rest of he’s fellow artists just by looking at the difference in quality and well every aspect really.

This man is known more for he’s cherub designs so you would not find many animal pieces by this artist and Ive only found the one piece two with slightly differing colours and the other is slightly different around its chest area.

All the pieces are of a beautiful colour two are glossy brown while one has a slightly different colour way and all have that lazy seated posture with one free back leg jutting outwards.

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Artists of German ceramics Metzner and Ortloff

Now I think Metzner and Ortloff were working at Grathanfal when they made these pieces and at differing periods of time due to the colours I see on the pieces they’ve made, starting with what I think are their earlier works is this adorable set of miniature porcelain bulldogs.

You can forgive the Nieve paint job splashed on these pieces just because they are so cute and the puppies poses have really been captured really well but yet still in a simple form, I have found a mum a three puppy types so far I think it’s the whole set as I’ve not seen any other pups or a dad to the set.

The second by M and O is this little fella and the reason why I think this duo worked at Grathanfal is because this piece looks like a smaller version of a larger piece by that name I will add to the picture so you can see too.

The piece has colour on it making me think it was made when days were good as the same for any field back then using paint as part of their materials for creating objects and some times even plain white ones were stamped and sold to the consumer market these can be seen as rarer now.

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Vintage German Elphina ceramic bulldogs

When I spoke of Huebach I didn’t mention this manufacturer yet they seemed to of adopted the same style as Huebach or got permission to use the same model number and mould, these seem like a cheaper version and do not quite have the same quality as their better counterparts.

You can see this by the back leg actually touching the body and not made to sit free of the body this was a easier way to make the piece via the mould and there were less breakages when the piece had dried, as it had more strength being moulded into the body.

I would presume there are more than the three sizes I have and all the ones I have found are the same colour with white body and black head.

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Rare ceramic Sitzendorf bulldogs featuring a set

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One of my favourite manufactures of bulldogs from Germany is Sitzendorf and little is known about these pieces other than where they came from, the first are two small pieces with a bit of a comical feature and again going back to colour I would date these as late 1940s the colours used are still the same being that black and brown mix that seems featured on many of the quality pieces made.

The next is a bulldog set a family maybe but as they are all the same size it maybe that they are just three styles of the same piece.

To get the set is extremely rare and I think I found each piece in a different country including Scotland.

You can see the appeal straight away and there is some skill used in the poses of each one and again that pastel grey pops up giving a clue to its date.

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Rosenthal

This factory is another that stands alone producing some of Germany’s best porcelain and their bulldog range shows just that, I’ve seen many a piece not bulldog related from Rosenthal and they get it right every time with the only down fall on this piece being the eyes, for some reason some collectors will not collect this piece due to the eyes being of a blue colour I’m not sure why as it’s an exquisite piece with great portions and realism.

I have seen this piece in a collection of around seven or eight before, the seller had them lined up in different sizes and yet again going from the black and white through the brown to the ultra rare white figurine that I would love to add to the collection one day.

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erstaunliche Porzellan bulldogs wurden in Deutschland in den letzten zwei oder drei cent und sie gehören zu einigen der weltweit am besten gemacht.

Dank an Deutschland und ihre Künstler und ihre Hersteller Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, dass er uns ein paar tolle Stücke aus einem Land reich an seiner Porzellangeschichte

I really enjoyed writing this blog not because I do not enjoy writing them but because, I needed to get pieces out to photograph so it was nice to see them individually for a bit, to those that are multi lingual I hope my message above was right and for those that are not I’m just thanking Germany for the quality and richness of its porcelain culture and past well I hope it says that if not I could be in trouble.

Some may of seen some of these pieces in a blog or two before but as Weebly messed up my blogging account and cannot amend it, I thought it would be nice to do it and I think I’ve done a good job especially with my photography but you can be the judge of that.

Keep safe folks and happy collecting…