Rare pieces

hi there readers I hope your all well and safe, I am waiting for my web designer to retrieve my blogs back into archives and useful content for the pages so until then I thought it would be nice to pick out some rare pieces that we have here at

Collectibulldogs.

The first piece is one of many gifts sent to me by a lovely adorable lady from Australia 🇦🇺 (she won’t want me saying but she knows whom she is), I couldn’t believe it the other morning when opening up a parcel to find a silver bulldog cup!!! I was both humbled and gobsmacked to receive such generosity this piece is rare it’s dated 1954 and there’s no other so I am very lucky to have such amazing friends worldwide.

Tick tick I’ve not come across another clock

I ended up parting with this next piece but the ladies whom collection I helped so much on the wonderful island of Hawaii won’t mind, I Found this rare piece on a popular auction site and feel for it straight away.  Now I’m not sure if the subject matter chased into the silver is the dickens character or John Bull it didn’t matter it was stunning.

Dated at the turn of the century it depicts a drunken soul asleep holding a beer barrel with he’s faithful bulldog lying under the table, if I remember rightly I put this piece up as part of a swap I couldn’t get hold of an American firm to have a custom made glass bulldog made I did a deal with my friend.

 

Rare Doulton

This next piece is porcelain and rare not just because there are limited numbers but by the colourway used, the piece is named the tam o Shanter and was designed by John knokes around 1910-1917 he was a keen military man so many of he’s designs took the traditional seated piece and changing certain aspects to reflect the army,

the navy, and the Air Force. This is also shown in he’s sets of three with each different figurine either having 3 sizes or colours.

For those interested I did a past blog explaining the difference between Doulton collectors and their Bulldogger counterparts. two types of collectors

 

 

Is it rare ?

If you have been in the collecting world for a while you would of come across  eccentric dealers and auctioneers can that can tell you a yarn about most pieces they have, This is a form of provenience but can be untrue at times with the story made up to sell the item.

This piece came to me with its object name being “a fishermans priest” and sailors

would make variations of these to give to the local  clergy or church in exchange for the hope and prayers of calm seas and fish o plenty in their nets.  To me it resembles a toffee hammer but who am I to know and I do so enjoy the different stories that antiques dealers and novice sellers use to try and sell their wares, try it go into any antiques shop pick a piece and I bet the owner tells you a story about it.

 

Rare sub collections

there are lots of rare pieces in each sub section or collection and moving away from the ceramics and other mediums I have chosen to show the silver pieces, Partly due to the age of the pieces but also the rarity of some of them.

All the pieces are hallmarked and are either from England, Russia, Australia, American, and there’s even a necklace and pendant there from Finland too.  As you can imagine it takes a while to polish this lot up but for my Christmas gift this year

And I’ve asked if someone else could just polish it the once now that’s not asking for much is it. One of my favourite pieces from here is a vesta from the old English coal industry yet it’s all lovely and shiny.

Rare hoody

The time I’ve spent looking for bulldog car/ hood emblems that are not MACK related was starting to prove fruitless until I obtained this piece from a contact that has long stopped contact I hope he’s ok! This is the only other emblem piece I’ve ever seen in all my years of collecting.

I think the piece is made of chrome and the next task is to see where it came from

and what it belonged too, Some novice collectors can get these mixed up with Radiator covers for old steam engines that were often made by the engineers themselves.

 

 

 

Rare lyons

To me this next rare object epitomises collecting in this field and like so many other pieces it’s a delight to own this, the company Lyons were from America and manufactured gentlemans high end canes until they ceased trading in 1919. I have tried to look for another to try and see what one looked like when fully adorned the down side to mine is its finery was stripped off before being sold on.

The upsides outweigh that fact the head is seprate to the cane and made from hardword its hand carved and then connected to a bamboo stem/ stick and tipped at the end, you can see for yourself the detail in the carving and the carver must of been very skilled indeed.

Im guessing at some point it had some nice detail snaking down and around the piece but not sure, if you know more please write in at ask@collectibulldogs.com I would love to hear any info I can on any of my pieces.

A rare fan

I’m not talking about the occasional lovely Collectibulldogs enthusiast here but a rare Black Forest hand carved fan with little bulldog heads on the end, I had met a gent online that remembers playing with many carved heads as toys as he’s nan was a home carver and created wooden heads for quite a few different objects i.e. Canes,umbrella handles and he dated the piece back to at Least 1900 bc.

The fan is in good condition for its age with minimal wear and I think the black is

very becoming of the Victorian period but with no markings it’s hard to tell.

A word of advice to any collectors and that’s to keep these pieces clean but don’t over clean as to much handling will only cause damage or faster wear and tear

 

 

Huebach the rare one

To all my new readers that have not heard of this maker Huebach He was a German porcelain artisan and worked for many different German manufacturers most commonly known for working at Gerbruder and Kurnst where this next rare beautiful piece was made.

Unlike he’s cheaper more mass produced pieces this is indeed a rare piece in the

German porcelain sub section at Collectibulldogs.  Look at the way he has captured

the bulldogs essence as it sits there always half asleep and looking like he’s just about to doze off. And again it’s a piece that makes me feel lucky for what’s here.

Germany was the second largest country in the world to produce bulldog memorabilia this was due to industry and their own love of the breed itself.

A final rarity

This last piece could be concidered as the bible for the bulldog world it’s the standard as it was first written with us owning the 1913 revised edition. The book is only 16 pages long yet so important to so many people, I have been made offers on this piece even by the kennel Club but I would like to keep it for my own exhibitions and displays.

The rarest

I think that Collectibulldogs.com should be added to the list, as we are the first of our type ever online we are a rarity indeed and as we are a collection show and tell it must confuses many at first that think I’m a business selling figurines.

The pieces are way to important to sell on and as in previous Blogs I have mentioned that we are going down the museum route yet we do not mind assisting others with their collections.

I have left a link as I politely ask those with a spare five mins to send in some feedback about the website thank you

Please send us your thoughts

Please check out a page or two

thank you very much and until next time happy collecting folks.