Royal Doulton 'Bunnykins' Bone China Baby Plate & Porridge Bowl — Outdoor Party & Bathtime Scenes, England — Duo

The Bunnykins world has been keeping children company at mealtimes since 1934 — which is, by any measure, a remarkable innings.

Royal Doulton's Bunnykins range holds a particular place in the history of English ceramic design. First introduced in 1934, based on illustrations by Sister Mary Barbara Vernon — a Dominican nun whose drawings of rabbit families in domestic and outdoor settings were given to her father, Royal Doulton's managing director — the range became one of the most enduring children's tableware series ever produced. The scenes depicted are unhurried and warmly observed: rabbits going about the business of ordinary life with a completeness and sincerity that has kept the range in continuous production for the better part of a century.

This duo comprises a medium baby plate and a porridge bowl, each decorated on the interior with a different scene from the Bunnykins world. The plate carries an outdoor party scene: a family gathered beneath a tree, a cloth-covered table set with cakes, younger rabbits playing on the grass and attending to a baby in a wicker crib. The bowl depicts a domestic bathtime — mother rabbit overseeing a cheerful chaos of water, soap, sponges, and small rabbits in various states of compliance. Both pieces carry the running rabbit border to the rim, rendered in warm brown on an ivory ground with a green grass-line detail.

The plate is dated © 1988 Royal Doulton on the backstamp. The bowl carries the earlier Registered Trade Mark backstamp without a copyright date, indicating an earlier production run. The two pieces are from different production periods but are visually and decoratively consistent.

Key Details

• Maker: Royal Doulton, England
• Mark (plate): Royal Doulton Made in England, English Fine Bone China, "Bunnykins" ®, © 1988 Royal Doulton
• Mark (bowl): Royal Doulton Made in England, English Fine Bone China, "Bunnykins" ®, Regd Trade Mark
• Series: Bunnykins
• Body: English fine bone china, ivory ground
• Decoration: Transfer-printed narrative scenes with running rabbit border
• Plate scene: Outdoor birthday party
• Bowl scene: Bathtime
• Plate diameter: 20 cm
• Bowl diameter: 15 cm
• Quantity: Two pieces, sold as a duo

Condition
Good used condition. There are no chips, cracks, or crazing. Light surface marks consistent with age and use are present on both pieces.

Two pieces from different moments in a very long story — and still, unmistakably, the same world.