I’ve chosen ten of the best pieces to show

Before I start talking about the best pieces I’m going to talk about and try and remember their facts I’d like to say hi to everybody I hope your all safe and well no matter where you maybe.

Number ten out of my best of pieces has to be The old growler this is a Victorian toy made up until the 1900s and made from wire wood paper mache and had a  mechanism inside.

The feet have little hand carved wheels and when the child pulled the lead the dogs mouth would open and make a barking sound, nowadays that bark has turned into a muffed woof hence his nick name the Olde growler, Collectibulldogs has loaned ours to our local toy museum.

Number nine in this top ten of the best I’m giving to my Doulton sets, compared to others I only have a few and to other collectors I have lots, I’m just happy Collectibulldogs has some of the best pieces England had to offer from the 1900s.

Royal Doulton can run into the 1000s when buying and selling and with a few other top names they always hold their money and book price keeping demand high and quantity low.

Number Eight on the list of my best top ten is the tiny tactile yet adorable seated bulldog by Theodore Madison, just the way he gets the pieces weight perfect so that the object stands upright without to much strain going on this rare form of one front legged standing piece.

Theodore was just one of many great artistans from Denmark I remember when Dahl Jensen was a favourite until I saw this mans work, the piece stands just 7cms tall but as you can see has  immense beauty and style.

Number seven of the best has to be THE STANDARD mine is the 1913 revised edition and is one of the rarest best books any bulldog collector would love to own, the book was created as a blue print on how the breed should look and be bred with very strict rules.

The standard only has 16 pages yet is very detailed clear and precise I’ve been lucky enough to receive offers exceeding £500 for this particular book yet as I wish for my own museum to open one day it has to be a keeper and if it was not important to me I would of gifted it to the kennel club.

With number six I’m going to have to cheat I did say ten of the best yet number six is a collection in itself, I’m talking about my silver collection and one of my personal favourites.

Im not sure how I’ve managed to amass so much in just six years but I have and WOW what a collection it’s turned out to be, ranged from little tiny bulldog charms upto silver bulldog figurines, antiques, trophies and medals too and not forgetting all the jewellery that has managed to find its way here.

I do prefer the older silver this unless something special has the same value as today’s silver and still seen as scrap by many, this is true if you had one or two small pieces but with what Collectibulldogs has obtained it could quite easily be sold as a whole.

This of course isn’t the ephos here and we keep and preserve every piece put into our collection the only problem with silver is its cleaning, as you can imagine it’s all well and good chatting about them and showing them all shiny but it takes a day with the wife’s help to keep it all from tarnishing.

The best of my choices top 5

Down to number five 

number five on the list is a bit of a surprise to me but as it’s really old and I’ve only ever seen variations I felt it deserved a spot in the top ten, made from heavy bronze this inkwell although amazing looking has a bit of a gothic look to it.

Back before the bulldog was an oversized lapdog they were seen in this way and a few of my pieces show that, there’s no getting away from history and this piece proves just how popular the bulldog was even before its domestication

number four 

when I did the research on this piece I was dumbfounding and astonished at what I had and as you can see it’s more like a baby faced animal of some description than its actual medium of being a ceramic bulldog figurine.

The Akari Japanese bulldog is a rare piece with only one other seen since last century the piece is said to be over one hundred and fifty years old, the paints and pallets used are blessed and a tradition is to use just three colours, if you were to research this piece you will find there’s two kinds of this blessed Japanese dog I’m yet to see the other.

Number three

Going back to pieces being controversial number three on the list is one of the best bronzes we have in the collection and a proper talking piece, again a bit distasteful to some yet as I state these pieces are antiques and when made life was not as PC as today.

Being from Austria this piece has survived wars it didn’t get melted down for ammunition like so many others and we feel lucky to own one. You can find these made in France but the quality just isn’t the same.

Made from pure bronze the bulldog is tethered to a post which doubles up as a match strike and the matches can be found by tilting the dogs head upward, another reason why this is in my top three is becouse of the saving I had to do to get him here.

number two 

As a proud owner of a bulldog and as a collector I’ve seen my fair share of real bulldogs and the memorabilia side so number two just for the sheer look of how many of us see our bulldogs day to day goes to a rare and beautiful Huebach piece.

The bulldog has been captured in its lazy seated position and the artist has caught it to the point the piece is made to look like the bulldog is just about to doze off which we can all relate to.

Huebach are one of my favourite artisans from Germany, they have made quite a few differing versions for different factories but this has to be thier best work from what I’ve seen, again this I said another piece I’ve been offered a conciderable amount for and you can see why.

If you have ever owned a bulldog this stance should be one you see time and time again, the bulldog is known to have a snooze whilst sleeping and I believe this has made for many a humorous giggle on UTube as even the pups seem to do it and topple over, we may have a few in our Funny pictures of cute bulldogs

Number one choice

The number one choice is a no brainer it was drawn by a young South Korean artist called pipi jay and is a brilliant depiction of my last bulldog scruffy Louise, I’ve looked high and low and without being bias and putting a piece by my daughter as number one I’ve chosen this piece.

My daughter and her pieces are well and safe whereas scruffy is no longer here and is missed everyday, wiggles is a beautiful bulldog and cute but she’s a ladies dog and there’s not the same bond as I had with scruffy Louise.

Anything gong on lately?

We finally have a date for my first exhibition and the curators will be coming to see my collection around my birthday they will help to choose pieces suitable for the exhibit I wish them luck as there’s so much here.

Fingers crossed I may have found a young lady from Africa whom has a desire for passion and empathy to come and blog for us, we advocate inspiration and if any one can learn from her writings then it’s worth giving this lady a voice.

Lastly and I’m stoked about this a blog article to a dog magazine called FROM THE DOGS PAW has been submitted, I wrote about my collection and broke it up into parts which the editor found intriguing, once published I’m hoping it gets enough likes that I’m asked to come back again.

PLEASE NOTE

Collectibulldogs is always happy to submit many varied articles and to you out there sitting next to a curio whilst reading this turn and have a look and think why shouldn’t I tell the world about my treasures!!  I did and now your reading all about it others can read your story to just email us at ask@collectibulldogs.com or let us know if you have ten favourites from the collection.  So until next time folks stay safe keep the peace and happy collecting.

please note due to technical problems I’m unable to reach all my Of my formats i.e. Stumbled upon etc if your on these formats please share THANK YOU