INFORMATION ON KITTY MACBRIDE from Buddydazzler (as promised).
Kitty MacBride was an exceptional woman. It was not until the late 1950s, that she began to make her 'Happy Mice'.
Born in 1904, in Derbyshire, England, she had already been a successful Fleet Street journalist, fiction writer and illustrator, before her career as a potter began.
As a hobby, she spent long, patient hours sketching and drawing mice, kept in a glass fronted cage in her garage - until she had the inspiration to begin modelling them in clay - using a tiny, nine inch kiln.
In 1963, a London antique dealer offered to sell them for her, from his premises on the corner of Berkeley Square, London, (where the nightingale sang).
The little figures proved to be very popular, and because her work was so finely detailed and artistically sound, she aroused considerable interest and enthusiasm amongst those who appreciated craftsmanship in pottery.
Occasionally, she made one-off figures for people in public life - such as: former British Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath; International Ballet Dancer, Sir Robert Helpmann; and even HM. The Queen.
Around 1975, she approached Royal Doulton/Beswick, and they commissioned eleven of her character mice to be produced from their factory in the heart of 'the potteries', Stoke-on-Trent. These figures were produced commercially
for a number of years.
However, she continued making 'original' versions of 'Happy Mice' (as they became known), despite suffering from increasing arthritis in her hands, right up to the time of her rather sudden death in 1983.
