Collies and Jollies

First, the Collies: My friend, Sue, who saw the blog entry on my new Mortens Studio puppies, asked that I put mama and pup together for a photo opportunity. Here they are!

 This is the medium adult Collie and the large Collie puppy.

You can see how big the puppy is in comparison to the adult Collie. I have personally never seen any of the large adult dogs, just the puppies.

Now, the Jolly. As in Jolly Cholly. Look at the decanter that I found recently in an antique shop. It is a copy of the Jolly Cholly mold. 

But who is copying whom? There has always been a bit of mystery associated with the origins of Breyer's Jolly Cholly. He was supposedly sculpted by Chris Hess and introduced in 1966, but there have been many similar figures found by hobbyists over the years. Who did the original sculpture?

Robert Simmons Ceramics made a basset hound quite like the Jolly Cholly. Go to this link and scroll down to the Hounds section to see it: Robert Simmons Gallery. If you read the text, the company was in business from the 1940s to the early 1960s, so the Robert Simmons hound may predate the Breyer Jolly Cholly. But the text also states that most of their figurines were copies of other companies' figurines. Who was the company that they copied this piece from? Or, is it possible that the Robert Simmons sculpt is actually an original?

I remember as a girl in the 1960s that basset hounds were wildly popular. One was (and still is) the mascot for Hush Puppies Shoes. Bassets were a popular choice of families for a household pet, my husband's family being one of them. (Oh, the stories Craig tells of Ajax, a seventy pounder that they nicknamed The Cannonball for his propensity to come running to greet you and then knock you over in the process!)

Surely the breed's popularity was one of the reasons that Breyer produced the Jolly Cholly. It was in Breyer's lineup from 1966-1985, so I would assume that it sold well and that it is why it had such longevity.

So, who sculpted the piece? More research needs to be done, but I am guessing that it was not Chris Hess and that Breyer copied someone else's work.