R sent me two Disney ceramic figurines from the 1950s, both under six and a half inches. R’s parents sourced this dapper Jiminy Cricket and frustrated Donald Duck, with his fist raised in anger, from a Disney artist. Are they valuable prototypes or production pieces?
The first of its kind is always most valued. The Donald figure made me ask: why is Donald so pissed off? Donald’s short tempered intense outbursts may be analyzed as Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Or on the other hand, the expectation of disappointment could be a cultural trait, common to both ducks and Danes. Yes you read that right!
Donald Brayton Company
The first company licensed to produce figures based on Disney movie characters, made the angry Donald figurine here in California. Brayton graduated from the Chicago Art Institute, moved to the artist’s colony of Laguna Beach, and built a kiln in his garage in 1927. Once out of the kiln, he painted his pottery, figural work and tableware, with distinctive colors: rose, strawberry, eggplant, jade, lettuce, chartreuse, gold, burnt orange. He didn’t have a shopfront. He put his wares outside in the front yard of his Tudor Style bungalow. By 1936 a new wife convinced him to create a factory with a showroom, design facilities, and high-end kilns on Pacific Coast Highway on a five acre plot. He employed, at the apex of the factory, a hundred and fifty artists, and won the contract for Disney ceramics.
Donald the Dane
Failing to resist temptation, I read an article on Donald Duck’s anger problem by Kay Xander Mellish, on her blog “How to Live in Denmark.” She said Donald Duck is more popular with Danes than Mickey Mouse, the errant gentleman of Disney characters. Donald, whose name in Danish is Anders the duck, is the underdog. He doesn’t expect happy endings. So, he gets angry when what he expected, an insult, a bad outcome, too much work, or unwelcome demands, comes true. Mellish said the Danes identify with the underdog and identify with low expectations. Americans, who revere Mickey, revel in individualism and high expectations. Americans expect good things; Danes expect disappointment and are pleased when they’re wrong. At the heart of Donald Duck’s comedy turns, and Danish humor, are unfulfilled high expectations.
Polls suggest Denmark is the happiest country in the world. Danes are okay with dashed expectations, because for two-hundred years (1700-1900), due to loss of crops, people, and territory, Denmark was considered the poorest European country. Not anymore. When I last visited Copenhagen I found it hip, trendy, and rich. Like Donald Duck, Danes learned to turn repeated disappointments into humor or “self-irony.” The way Disney studios employed frustration to create the humorous side of Donald reflects Danes ability to make fun of themselves. In fact, the Danish tradition of ‘kvjebajer,’ the failure beer toast, shows that once a Dane fails, they celebrates failure, exhibiting that they’re not always the smartest person in every room. They buy all friends a drink to celebrate the fact that we’re all fallible HUMANS.
Disney’s Jiminy Cricket
The Jiminy Cricket character is a production figurine from the 1940s modeled after the Disney film Pinocchio. Evan K Shaw created the expression of dapper dan confidence of the little cricket. The charming figure holds a brief case, an umbrella, and wears a jaunty top hat. Unlike the figures that came after this one, he does NOT have a green face, but a flesh colored visage. Shaw opened a kiln called “American Pottery” in Los Angeles and Disney awarded him a license to produce characters. A fire destroyed American Pottery in 1946, so Shaw bought Metlox Pottery in Manhattan Beach and continued to make Disney character.
The figure, as in the film, acted as Pinocchio’s conscience, as such, granted to him by the Blue Fairy. The Fairy endowed Jiminy “lord high keeper of the knowledge of right and wrong, counselor in moments of high temptation, and guide along the straight and narrow path.” We all need a Jiminy.
The value of Jiminy is $500 and Angry Donald is $600.
Love this sentence “ They buy all friends a drink to celebrate the fact that we’re all fallible HUMANS.”
How fabulous. Another keeper of a column from you❣️