{"product_id":"cold-painted-hand-gilded-easter-rabbit-figure-pink-hat-blue-overalls-early-20th-century","title":"Cold-Painted and Hand-Gilded Easter Rabbit Figure in a Pink Brimmed Hat and Blue Overalls, Standing on a Flowered Base with Eggs, Early to Mid 20th Century","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA small standing rabbit in a pink hat, carrying an egg, outlined in gold from the tips of his ears to the rim of the base he stands on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe is dressed with some care. A wide-brimmed hat in coral pink, banded in pale blue and trimmed with a green sprig at the crown; a lavender neckerchief knotted at the back of the neck; a yellow jacket with rolled cuffs; and pale blue bib overalls with a buttoned chest pocket, the legs finishing below the knee over bare feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTucked under one arm is a large egg, yellow above and green below with a gold band running round it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe stands on an oval mound base worked as a patch of ground — green grass, small white and pink flowers, and a clutch of eggs in pink, lavender and green nestled in at his feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe gold is the technique that holds the whole thing together. A fine raised gold line has been run by hand along every edge on the figure: the ear tips, the hat brim and band, the muzzle, the neckerchief, the jacket seams and cuffs, the pocket, the overall hems, the toes, and a continuous zigzag all the way round the rim of the base.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe underside is flat, unglazed and undecorated, with a single small hole at the centre.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe paint is the evidence here, and it is the kind that does not lie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLook at how the colour sits on the figure. The cream of the face, the ears, the feet and the base is matte and dry, absorbed into the surface. The yellow, blue, coral and lavender of the clothes are glossy and stand proud, pooled slightly where the brush left them. The gold stands proud of both, a raised line laid over the top of everything else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThree different surface behaviours on one figure is not a glaze. A glaze is fired into the body and comes out of the kiln uniform. What is on this rabbit is cold paint — colour applied to an unglazed body after firing, in enamel and lacquer, and left to dry rather than fired in.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCold painting was the ordinary way to decorate a figure for most of the history of figure-making, and it is the reason so few early painted figures survive with their colour intact. It went out of use because it fails. Unfired paint wears away at every handled edge, and manufacturers moved first to fired underglaze and on-glaze decoration and later to colour moulded into resin precisely to stop it happening. Finding cold paint on a figure places it before that change rather than after it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wear is consistent with the technique. The colour has thinned at the muzzle and along the backs of the ears — exactly where fingers land when a figure this size is picked up — and the cream beneath shows through. That is how cold paint goes. Fired decoration does not wear that way at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe body underneath is unglazed and porous, and the flat underside has taken on the yellowed tone and the settled grime that a porous surface acquires over decades of shelf life and handling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is no maker's mark, no model number and no country of origin anywhere on the figure, and that is not evidence of recency. Marking decorative figures only became routine in the later twentieth century, and imported goods were very often marked with a paper label that has long since gone. Unmarked is the normal condition for a piece of this period, not the exception.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDated on the decoration and the body rather than on style: early to mid twentieth century. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe subject is older still. Dressed rabbits carrying eggs have been made as Easter figures since the nineteenth century — in composition and papier-mache in Germany, in cast plaster in America, and in painted ceramic everywhere since. Putting the rabbit in a coat and a hat is a convention older than any maker currently producing them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMoulded figure of a standing rabbit, cold-painted and hand-gilded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 4½ in tall, on a base approximately 2½ in across\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFigure\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStanding rabbit in a coral pink wide-brimmed hat with a pale blue band and green sprig, lavender neckerchief knotted at the back, yellow jacket with rolled cuffs, pale blue bib overalls with a buttoned chest pocket, bare feet, carrying a yellow and green egg under one arm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOval mound worked as grass and flowers, with pink, lavender and green eggs set in at the feet; continuous gold zigzag around the rim\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCold paint over an unglazed body — matte and absorbed in the cream areas, glossy and proud in the clothes — with a fine raised gold line run by hand along every moulded edge: ears, hat, muzzle, neckerchief, jacket, pocket, hems, toes and the rim of the base\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnderside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFlat, unglazed and undecorated, with a single small hole at the centre\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone. No maker's mark, model number or country of origin on any surface. Unmarked is normal for a figure of this period, and imported pieces were commonly identified by a paper label. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEarly to mid 20th century, dated on the cold-painted decoration over an unglazed porous body and the hand-gilt outlining — construction evidence rather than style.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good, and unusually complete for a cold-painted figure of its age. No chips, no cracks, no repairs and no restoration. The ears, the hat brim and the flowers on the base are all intact, which is where a figure like this loses something first. The colour is bright and the gold outlining is present throughout and still reads clearly. The paint has thinned at the muzzle and along the backs of the ears where the figure has been handled, which is normal and expected in cold paint and is the surface telling you its own age. There are a few small dark flecks in the cream areas, and light soiling has settled into the unglazed rim of the base and across the underside. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eEaster decoration is almost entirely disposable, and this is what the opposite looks like — a figure that has already come out of the box every spring for the better part of a century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat is the whole case for owning one. Paper, card and moulded plastic get replaced every few years. A figure like this gets put away with the good things and comes back out, and somewhere along the way it stops being decoration and becomes the thing the children look for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt four and a half inches he sits comfortably where seasonal objects actually go — a windowsill, a hall table, a kitchen shelf, the middle of a table among eggs and branches, a mantel where he can be seen from the doorway.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe gold is what lifts him above the ordinary. Most painted Easter figures are flat colour and nothing else; the hand-run gold line here catches light on every edge, and it is a great deal more work than the piece strictly needed. The zigzag around the base is freehand, and the spacing wanders slightly, which is how you can tell a person did it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe colours behave well, too. Coral, lavender, butter yellow and pale blue against cream is a proper spring palette rather than a nursery one, and it sits happily with white china, plain linen and green branches.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe makes a serious gift, which a new one never can — for a grandparent who sets a seasonal table, for a first Easter, or for anyone who keeps a shelf that changes four times a year and would rather it changed with something old.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and this is the important part. The colour on this figure is surface paint, not glaze. Never wash it, never put it under a tap, and never wipe it with a damp cloth. Water and pressure take cold paint off, and it does not come back.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDo not soak it under any circumstances. The body is unglazed and porous and will draw water in through the hole in the base, which then takes days to dry and leaves a stain behind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDust it with a soft dry brush and nothing else. A brush reaches between the hat brim, the ears and the flowers where a cloth cannot go, and it will not drag at the paint or the gold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKeep it out of direct sun, which fades unfired colour faster than almost anything.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWrap him in tissue rather than newspaper for storage and pack him upright. The ears and the hat brim are the thin points, and they are what break in a box.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48047992242281,"sku":"VE-0774","price":145.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/E6591302-7818-4EF4-8EE0-FDB75FB91D08.jpg?v=1789320529","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/cold-painted-hand-gilded-easter-rabbit-figure-pink-hat-blue-overalls-early-20th-century","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}