At some point Spirit Rabbit also began delivering presents, sharing the spotlight with Santa. Like Easter, Christmas – devoid of religion in our family – had become an odd tribute to consumerism. They were looking for Spirit Rabbit’s base of operations and their hunt occurred on International Rabbit’s Day, a high holiday for rabbits that I declared, celebrated alongside Easter. But they weren’t searching for the Easter Bunny. Their expedition was inspired by the depiction of a secret subterranean world in a storybook put out by a chocolate company with the obvious intent of turning ordinary Easter eggs into something a little more beguiling. When my children were seven, they donned their new bunny backpacks and their winter boots to trek through banks of spring snow to find the entry to the chocolate factory that opened up at the base of a tree. “Rabbits Forever” became a family password with a secret wave of the fingers that resembled bunny ears.Īgainst this lineup of fully formed characters the ubiquitous Easter Bunny seemed as hollow as the chocolate rabbits in cellophane packaging. She became a byword for protection.Įverywhere I looked there were rabbits to consider, each with unique qualities that might illuminate the nature of the evolving Spirit Rabbit: Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit Rabbit of Winnie the Pooh fame the Velveteen Rabbit, made real through love the White Rabbit who leads Alice into the magical realm of Wonderland. Spirit Rabbit was starting to take shape. He insists that he is running away but is reassured by his rabbit mother that no matter where he might go, she would always be there. The same bunny appeared in Brown’s Runaway Bunny, but by then he could talk. Miffy was followed by a mute, unnamed bunny in striped pyjamas who appeared in their beloved bedtime story Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Small children, including my girls at the time, accept this miracle without question. She is white with long ears and a whiff of the divine. Rabbit’s home one night and declares, “A baby rabbit is on her way to you.” Miffy is born soon afterwards. In Miffy, a picture book by Dick Bruna, a little cherub taps on the window of Mr. I read to my children before they could speak and on through their childhood. My grandmother passed down to me some Royal Doulton Beatrix Potter Figurines.Books were part of it. I’m not sure what happened after that but if you have a genuine Beatrix Potter Figurine, you should definitely hold on to it. Beatrix was not happy about that and tried to have their agreement altered or canceled. They could not work with Beatrix because a German firm had already started producing nursery items based on her characters. She then contacted Royal Doulton’s Lambeth factory. Around 1907, she used clay to make some model figures. I do not know if you are familiar with the story of how she started the figurines, but it is very interesting.īeatrix herself first thought of having her hand-drawn creations made into a marketable product. March 10, The Beatrix Potter Figurines are, unfortunately, no longer in production. It wasn’t until after she died that her wonderful characters were finally produced as figurines. She thought that Royal Doulton and Grimwades should join since Royal Doulton had much more experience in coloring the figurines. They made another model of Jemima Puddleduck and Beatrix really liked it. She had sent these same figurines to Royal Doulton ten years earlier. She sent them some clay figures that she had made. She didn’t like it but she was interested in the company. A firm called Grimwades created a model of Jemima Puddleduck and sent it to Potter for approval. March 12, It was another ten years before anyone tried to produce any of Potter’s characters. I'm a thirteen-year-old American girl and still love her stories.
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