Topic: My tiny glass Scottie dog family. Please, does anyone know the details on these?

[kimo]

Hi everyone.  I have some tiny glass Scottie dogs and I cannot seem to get an authoritative answer to exactly who made them and how they were sold or given away.  These are very small - you can see by the penny their relative size.  Using a ruler the mother dog is 1 and 3/4 inches and the puppy Scotties are each 7/8 inch. They all have tiny glass(?) eyes glued into their faces and the glue has darkened over the years so their eyes appear to be bigger than they are since it appears that when they were made the glue was carelessly applied to the point where it extends to beyond the eyes themselves.  The all have brass (? - the metal is slightly corroded) collars and are connected by little chains between their collars, and all have a tiny glass bead attached to each collar.  They are nice but they are not top quality and are a tiny bit rough in the way they were cast in their two-part molds.

They have deeply molded fur and details, and they are acid etched into a satin finish.  Their bottoms are ground perfectly flat.  There are no markings of any kind on the dogs or the collars or anywhere.

I have seen these in various kinds of dogs, and also in cats, gorillas,  and other animals.  I have also seen them in various colors, though satin clear which these Scotties are seems to be the rarer color.

I see these for sale on Ebay - a couple each week.  Normally you only see one and not the complete set like mine in the below photos.  Also you normally see them missing one or both eyes, their collar, their bead on their collar, their chain, or you see them chipped with missing ears and feet and other high spots.  Also, they normally go for crazy high prices considering the size and the fact that they are not fine crystal normally in the $50 to $100 range just for a single animal and not the compete 3 animal set.

I have tried researching these and have found all kinds of guesses as to what they are and where they were made.  Most references say they are Czech glass of some kind.  Some say they were Crackerjack prizes, some say they were given away with some kind of perfume, some say they were simply sold in stores.  It seems like every reference says something a little different.  Perhaps this is because they were given away or sold in various ways and so all of the references are right, or it could be that incorrect stories keep getting retold.

My guess as to their age would be perhaps the 1920s to 1940s but that is just a wild guess and I really don't know.

I would very much like to know the true story behind these little guys.  I really like them.

Can anyone here say exactly how these were sold or given away back in the day, their approximate age, where they were made, and the name of the company that made them?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Ohio]

Both Lancaster Glass & L.E. Smith Glass made tiny novelty childrens animals, so many different dogs, cats, lions, elephants, bears, cows, horse, pigs, etc. that its impossible as to who made what & all of them were the size of yours. I seriously doubt these are Czech, simply doesn't make sense to import something like these when so many were available. Mid-Late nineteen teens to very early 20s. That was back when it was OK for kids to play with glass & you could assmeble an entire farm, zoo, whatever with these. That was before parents realized it was not a good idea to buy stuff like this for kids when the kids could get cut or choke these minis. That are a bit difficult to find because they were thrown in the trash by the thousands over the years. Below is a Lancaster 1" bulldog I once had. 

[kimo]

Thank you, Ohio.  I very much appreciate hearing what these really are after reading so many 'stories' of fanciful descriptions.

[Frank]

Almost certainly Czech, Karl Palda, Novy Bor (Bohemia/Czechoslovakia) Wholesaler and Glass refinery (decorator/finisher) that between 1888-1938 sold miniature glass figurines made by home-workers.

And they were exported world-wide.

Lots of examples in the Glass Zoo, where you can have a free 24hour subscription.

[Ohio]

And we also made these minitures over here in the U.S. both the old Lancaster Glass & L.E. Smith Glass catalogs have our examples. Not everything was imported from Europe, as we had our own glass industries.

[kimo]

Thank you, Frank.  I had always associated Karl Palda with those iconic deco vases with the complicated geometric designs on them in black, red, and other colors. I guess those were just one aspect of the firm's work towards the end and that they had a great many kinds of glass over their many decades. 

You mention that the tiny glass animals may have been home-worker items.  Would that be that home workers did contract work to finish the animals by gluing in the faceted glass eyes, and putting on the metal collars, chains, and glass bead ornamentation?

Also, do you know if these were sold or given away as premiums of some kind, or maybe both?

I tried signing into the Glass Zoo website as a one-day trial user and for some reason there is no final link to sign in.

Hi Ohio.  Perhaps the success of the these Czech animals gave rise to the US factories deciding to make them too?

Thank you both for sharing your expertise with a newbie.

[Frank]

@Ohio - Yes but I think all the US ones were larger than the bohemian ones. They are very similar but Westmoreland (from c. 1910) had more detail and a little larger, also collar was moulded and painted (or not). Smith were also larger. All the US ones I have seen did not have flat underside. Also bohemian ones were made in hand button moulds US more conventionally made.
@Kimo - The outworkers made the animals heating the moulds on a flame, their is a description on the board, I think, regarding the use these moulds with pics for button making. They do appear in US retailer catalogues but probably got distributed in multiple channnels. c1900 Bohemia was probably the largest producer of decorative glass in the world. As Westmoreland started theirs which are very similar in pose, some 20 years after production started they are no doubt inspired by the Bohemian. Of course by that time US had the best mould makers in the world so it is not surprising that the US ones were a superior quality product. It would be interesting to compare prices as generally Bohemian glass was cheaper than US home grown, but I don't think I have any retail prices for US ones.
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[Ohio]

Frank I think we have a misunderstanding. We (over here) do not consider the Westmoreland nor the Lancaster Toby nor the Fenton bulldog(s) a minature. You are correct that they are larger, but again they are simply small at 2 5/8" height not the 1" variety. Same situation exists with the bears, lions, tiger, elephants, cows, horses, various dogs, etc. of the 1" to 1 1/2" variety we consider minatures. The Lancaster Toby design of 1915 was admittedly of Swiss design origin as stated in their 1915 ad, but again it not thought of a as a minature as its size is approx that of the Westmoreland small bulldog. The Westmoreland 2 5/8" bulldog is probably as you stated around 1910 & ran on & off production until 1971. Where their design came from is unknown & it may be a Czech copy, who knows? There is a smaller 1 1/2" bulldog that was not uncommon in Canada & it is thought it was a Czech import. While I am on the bulldog subject, I am sure you are aware that any reference to a U.S. glass (Tiffin) bulldog either large (as in Westmoreland doorstop size) or small (as in Westmoreland small size) should be dismissed. Tiffin never produced any large or small bulldogs...that myth has been debunked by both the National U.S. Glass Co. collectors group & the Westmoreland group since 2004. It is believed since U.S. Glass had a habit at times of buying glass from other companies to sell/decorate as theirs (U.S. Glass) that this lead to confusion that Tiffin was manufacturing bulldogs even though no sales ads, catalogs, etc. anywhere nor factory production records supports this. Unfortunately not that uncommon over here as Consolidated Glass bought Tiffin Black satin pieces from 1928 to 1932 then decorated them with the large enameled parrot design & sold them through the Consolidated catalogs as theirs (Consolidated) from 1928-1932.

I am not disputing that we imported minatures from Europe,  however we did in fact produce true 1" to 1 1/2" minature animals over here & yes in all likelyhood probably influenced by European imports & perhaps the Ops scotties are Czech, its just that its possible they are also U.S. Ken