Rabbitware: Border Rabbits

The June Pattern of the Month features the fourth of four Rabbitware themes. Rabbitware, an uncommon transferware genre, was produced around the turn of the 20th century (some patterns possibly earlier) for the American market. It is a combination of transfer printing and stick sponge with hand painting. Forms produced include (primarily) plates, chargers, (rarely) oval platters, and (rarely) mugs, small jugs and a few additional, miscellaneous, forms. There are four pattern categories or series. Two series are anthropomorphic: Sports (featured in the February 2025 POM), and Vignette (featured in the April POM). The third category, a much more common series, is Center Rabbits (featured in the March 2025 POM), commonly but not always including frogs!). Finally, the fourth series features various versions of rabbits in the border with stick sponge and hand painted decoration in the center. The maker of the current series is unknown (only the maker of the Sports Series is known). Three of the four border versions include frogs. Rabbits, with frogs, variously face one-way; pairs face each other; rabbits appear in random configuration; and in the fourth variation, are running all in the same direction. The rabbits dominate, but why the addition of frogs? The TCC Database of Patterns and Sources currently documents 12 Rabbitware patterns (simply search under “rabbitware”, with more due to be recorded. For more information, view the DB records and an introductory article on the subject by Siddall and Hoexter in the 2010 Vol. XI no. 1 TCC Bulletin, available to download.