Royal Haeger Panthers …Floral Friday

Today, I continue a mini-salute to Haeger Potteries to commemorate their 145th anniversary and their unfortunate decision to shutter their business.  In particular I decided to deviate from my usual Friday format a bit.

My all-time favorite Royal Haeger item is their Leopard console set.  It is composed of two differently posed leopards and a footed planter.

For some unknown reason, Haeger catalogues list the cats as tigers, even though they have no stripes nor are their bodies tiger-like.

The leopards are perhaps the most famous creations of studio stuylist Royal Hickman.  They are part of an entire line of accessories that include cigarette boxes and table lamps, which I don’t own.

Most leopard statuettes were finished in a leopard pattern glaze, but there was a run of them finished in a solid, grayish glaze that are not as attractive. They’re very difficult to find, so I’m guessing the single color glazed cats are more valuable.

I originally came across my set in 1999 and have displayed it since then, never placing it in storage at all.  Every couple of years I change the semi-permanent arrangement in the planter for the sake of variety.

Today, I decided to go with a red-orange dried tropical arrangement.  It needed to have a narrow, upward shape in order to fit on top of a crowded console display surface.

The finished project fits in well with the mid-century fire orange themed collection of other items.

Ciao
The Blue Jay of Happiness quotes Friedrich Nietzsche today.  “While dreams are the individual man’s play with reality, the sculptor’s art is–in a broader sense–the play with dreams.”