Monday, September 21, 2009

Dan Brechner Alice Figure WD-29

Ok, I can hear you all saying, "Wait just a minute Matt, that's nothing special, that's just a watch figure." Au contraire faithful reader. This is indeed something special, in fact one of the (if not the) rarest domestic Alice figures there is. The Dan Brechner figure was produced for an extremely limited amount of time. Brechner held the license to make figures for only three years (1961-1963), and who knows how long this particular figure was manufactured. Most people are familiar with his Donald and Ludwig von Drake figures and S&Ps, but there were a variety of figures just like this one made as well. I've seen Alice, Snow White, Cinderella, Mickey, Donald, Ludwig, Donald's nephews, and more.

I understand how this could be mistaken for a watch figure though. The Brechner figure is a cheaper pottery, with a lower gloss glaze, and the painting is almost all overglaze, making nice examples very difficult to come by. Alice's right hand is raised, and she is standing on a thicker base with the words Alice in Wonderland around the base.

The ceramic watch figure from 1958 came with the Alice watch that just had the name Alice on the face. That figure is actually a better quality pottery than the Brechner figure, and has a higher gloss and all the painting is underglaze. Alice's left hand is raised and the base is very shallow with no words. Sometimes there is a sticker from the manufacturer on the bottom (Wales), but usually not.

The mark on the Brechner figure consists of just the stock number (WD-29) and the standard Productions copyright. Sometimes there is a small rectangular Japan sticker.

This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

thank you for having this post! its the most information i've been able to find on this figure that i got from my grandmother's collection. i have the alice with the left hand raised, although, unfortunately.. the left hand is gone :( regardless, it is great to read about where this may have come from. thank you!