The ceramic cats were the cutest things in their whimsical poses, colorful straight-pin whiskers and human clothes. I see a lot of porcelain and ceramic cats and kitties at auction, and I find most of them adorable.
Several of these still carried their maker’s tags, so I looked at one: WhimsiClay.
Based on the eight trays (with about 10 to 30 per tray,) someone had loved them very dearly and collected them heartily. I suspect that there were even more, and only a few made it to auction.
The cats were signed Lacombe. Googling, I learned that Amy LaCombe has been making these little creatures since 1994. She began her career about a decade earlier as a jewelry designer, and sold her wares in catalogs and department stores. Then came the cats with their “signature whiskers” that looked to me like straight pins with ball tips. The cats were first sold in gift shops in 2001.
She designs an array of mass-produced cats, dogs, skunks, pigs and other animals . They come in the form of figurines, pins, picture frames, earrings, and also as plush animals. She gets her ideas, she says, from her husband and children – two cats are named after her daughters Lucie and Priya – as well as her own cats and dogs, and nature. A few of the figurines at auction were also music boxes.
Lacombe also custom-makes figurines of other people’s cats.
The cats are apparently immensely popular; my search turned up tons of online retail stores that sell them, and her website lists some off-line shops.
I was so admiring of the figurines at auction that another auction-goer wondered if I would be buying any of them. He wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t get into a bidding war. We didn’t, because I wasn’t interested in buying any. He didn’t get to bid either because online bidders pushed the prices so far up that didn’t bother to jump in.
Here’s a sampling of the WhimsiClay figurines:
