Wonderful Pair of Antique Staffordshire Cats with a Wonderfully Expressive Attitude

THE STORY - Now these cats may not be Early Staffordshire, dating to either the end of the 1800s or the beginning of the 1900s and I think do not have the naive quality of those early pieces but what they do have quite splendidly I think is immense charm and the ability to make you smile, so of course they stole my heart. The two cats are of a lovely size, the marginally larger one measuring approx 18cm in height, each sitting on square cushion bases of a wonderful pea green colour with shocking pink tassels. They sit facing each other with the larger cat's head just slightly turned towards us and they have the most wonderful rust brown patches on them, each with a very thin rust brown tail. Both cats have around their necks gilt ribbons tied in a bow from which most of the gilt has rubbed off now and each have those splendidly expressive faces with strong eyebrows which I always adore, almond shaped eyes and light pinks muzzles with little red mouths. I think it is safe to say they have attitude, but in a very good way.

AGE - Circa 1900

CONDITION - Each of the cats are in good condition. On the underside of the cushion bases there are some small chips and this is especially true of the larger cat where the front two corners have small chips, this is probably best seen in the third photo. As I have already mentioned the gilt of each of the ribbons around their necks has worn as one would expect with their age, otherwise the colours of the cats are still strong and there is little crazing to the glaze that I can see.

DIMENSIONS (Approx) - For the Marginally Larger Cat - Height 7" / 18cm, Width 3&1/2" / 9cm, Depth 3" / 7.5cm

As I said at the beginning of this piece, this pair of Staffordshire Cats may not be as early as the pieces that normally pull on my heart strings but what they lack in naivety they more than make up for in impact for they really do have a presence about them, with their size, strong colours and those wonderfully expressive faces. They really are quite a pair.