The cult collectable that will have everyone stopping at your window
I absolutely adore these felines, and they have been in my window for six months (a record, really), peeking at passersby and making children laugh and coo. The large white cat looks as though getting up would be an unreasonable request. The black-and-white one seems concerned about the catering, while the red-striped cat has dressed for an occasion nobody else was told about. Put them together, and they make a wonderfully odd little gathering.
You’ll find the available cats below; scroll down a little further for the story behind their peculiar proportions.
Vicki Thomas’s Funny Bone Originals… it started with dried gourds
Dried gourds might sound like an unlikely starting point for a cat, but that’s where Vicki Thomas’s original characters began. Once dried and prepared, their hard shells can be sanded and painted, with the shape already doing some of the work for you.
Knowing that makes me appreciate these figures even more. The enormous white cat is almost a sphere, with just enough room at the top for a face. The black-and-white one has a long, tapering body, while the orange tabby looks rather like an egg that has developed opinions.
There’s something lovely about the idea of finding a character in a shape that’s already there. Looking at these cats, I can almost picture a generous tummy being decided by the gourd, with a face, ears and feet added wherever they’ll fit. A few extravagant whiskers later, an improbable cat begins to make sense.
How Enesco brought the characters to a wider audience
Enesco licensed Vicki’s designs and reproduced them as the Funny Bone Originals collection. The company described the figures as “gourd-like recreations of Vicki’s original designs”, crafted and hand-painted to capture the character of her work. So the cats you see here are those reproductions, rather than the original gourd creations she made herself.
I’m particularly fond of their handmade-looking finish. Look closely and you’ll see uneven surfaces, textured tails and little variations in the paintwork, all of which suit the oversized feet and slightly lopsided expressions. The white cat’s substantial tail, curled around his equally substantial middle, is especially lovely.
I’d love to know more about Vicki herself and how the Enesco partnership came about, but reliable information is thin on the ground. I haven’t found enough to say how well known she was before the collection appeared, although her name features prominently on the original packaging. These were very much presented as her characters, and I’m glad she gets the credit for them.
What the names and dates tell us
For a cat with such an extravagant figure, the white one has a wonderfully matter-of-fact official name: “Large White Cat Figurine”. Original packaging identifies him as model 312592 and carries a ©1997 Vicki Thomas mark. There’s no character name on that label, so calling him the fat cat is simply an affectionate observation on my part.
My red-striped example bears a ©2000 mark beside the Vicki Thomas signature, giving us another reference point for the collection around the turn of the millennium. Those are copyright dates, though, so they tell us about the designs rather than exactly when each individual cat was made.
I do enjoy finding these details, even if I’m usually won over by a face long before I get around to inspecting a maker’s mark. These cats reward a look around the back, too: the black-and-white one has a splendid white-tipped tail, and the tabby’s stripes continue right over his own curled tail. It seems a shame that the passersby enjoying my window haven’t had the full view.
Why I made room for them
As we say in this trade, everything has its day in the house, and now my window is ready for something new. I’ve had these cats, enjoyed them immensely, and I’m delighted to put them up for adoption so they can enjoy new views.
If you love them as much as I have, don’t dilly-dally — I’d be very happy to know they’re peering out of somebody else’s window and making a whole new set of passersby smile.