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A Dorothy Doughty biscuit porcelain prototype figu

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A Dorothy Doughty biscuit porcelain prototype figure of Chickadees (Parus Atrcapillus) and Larch, for the Royal Worcester American Birds Series, 1938, unmarked, 24cm high See The American Birds of Dorothy Doughty by George Savage, 1962, where Doughty comments: 'The Chickadee is bold and brave and strong, hardworking, never still for a minute, and full of gaiety and fun. I have seen them in the depth of winter, nothing daunted by cold and snow, cheeky and happy. I had a pair of aviary-bred tits in a large flight cage in my studio. Before they came I did up the whole cage and papered it all over with white contact material and put a great branch of larch in it. I thought it looked very nice, but they did not. They violently disapproved of my decorating efforts and set to work at once to make the cage more suitable as a home for tits. Every little corner and edge that could be prized up or pulled loose was used to start work from, and they hammered and tugged and twisted all day long for weeks until the cage was in rags. They enjoyed it all enormously, and I finished my models, and as a reward gave them their liberty, for although aviary bred, they were quite clever enough to fend for themselves among the wild ones. So off they flew with happy cries to a larger and more wonderful world.'

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