Vintage Royal Doulton Bunnykins Bowl – Letterbox Postbox Pattern, Walter Hayward, Running Rabbits Border, Bone China England, 1970s–1980s

A family of rabbits posts a letter at a red pillar box while a bird postman flies overhead with the mail — the "Letterbox" design, drawn by Walter Hayward in 1952 — with a ring of the little running rabbits that border every piece of Bunnykins around the rim. This is Royal Doulton Bunnykins, in English fine bone china.

Bunnykins has an unlikely origin. The rabbits were created in 1934 by Barbara Vernon — Sister Mary Barbara, a nun, and the daughter of Royal Doulton's general manager — who sent her drawings of dressed-up bunnies home from the convent. Royal Doulton put them into production in 1937, and they have never really stopped.

A note on dating, since it trips people up: the ©1936 that appears with the Bunnykins mark is the series' original copyright, not the date of the piece. This one, with its coloured three-rabbit mark and English Fine Bone China, belongs to the 1970s–80s.

A child's bowl, about six inches. For a Bunnykins collector, a new-baby or christening gift, or a rabbit-loving breakfast shelf. (This shop also has a Wedgwood Peter Rabbit egg cup, if you like your storybook rabbits — the two are different dynasties: Bunnykins is Royal Doulton's own, Peter Rabbit is Beatrix Potter's.)