You simply cannot have too many pairs of dandies. Charming dandy and dandizette couples, looking as if they have just stepped from their century into ours, are quintessentially Staffordshire. For that reason, I put a stunning pair of dandies on the dustjacket of my book.
The Reed Fitt Collection, auctioned in the UK in February 2000, comprised at least 25 pairs of dandies in all shapes and sizes. Miss Cyllene Reed and her companion Miss Beatrice Fitt were passionate collectors by not long after World War II. In the next 50 years, the ladies amassed a remarkable collection. Clustered together on the back of the catalog cover, the figures appear in a tree-filled world of their own. And on an inner page, dandy couples snake in a long curving row, as if they were queuing.
I have a pair of dandies from the Fitt Reed sale, and several other pairs besides. The most ordinary form can be extraordinarily wonderful. If you tire of dandies you have tired of life. Pairs with the dandy and dandizette on individual bases are quite uncommon. Fellow collectors whom I met in the UK this month kindly shared photographs of the pair below. Aren't they fabulous?
The Reed Fitt Collection, auctioned in the UK in February 2000, comprised at least 25 pairs of dandies in all shapes and sizes. Miss Cyllene Reed and her companion Miss Beatrice Fitt were passionate collectors by not long after World War II. In the next 50 years, the ladies amassed a remarkable collection. Clustered together on the back of the catalog cover, the figures appear in a tree-filled world of their own. And on an inner page, dandy couples snake in a long curving row, as if they were queuing.
I have a pair of dandies from the Fitt Reed sale, and several other pairs besides. The most ordinary form can be extraordinarily wonderful. If you tire of dandies you have tired of life. Pairs with the dandy and dandizette on individual bases are quite uncommon. Fellow collectors whom I met in the UK this month kindly shared photographs of the pair below. Aren't they fabulous?
These rare gems have been dubbed "Sam and Josh" by their owners. I call dandies of this form "skinny dandies", because of their narrowness . I have noted a similar pair in a Christies catalog. And then there is a pair in my book. Yes, the pair in my book are unconventional in that both are male--but perhaps Staffordshire potters were ahead of their times in acknowledging what is today quite acceptable.
