Royal Doulton Character Jug, Snowman Christmas Cracker D7158 (white; green hat; white and blue striped scarf). Designed by William K. Harper. Series: Snowman Miniatures, issued 1999 in special edition of 2,000. Size: 2.75″H (mini)
This is the third jug in the Snowman series.
Collectors are always thrilled to see the many faces of Santa Claus produced by Royal Doulton over the years and what a dramatic display they make at Christmastime! Father Christmas has been immortalised as a Character Jug many times since the first model introduced in 1981. There followed two further versions in 1982 and 1983 all three having the distinguishing feature of a different handle. The Santa Claus jug marked a new direction for Royal Doulton as they produced a definite annual variation of a character jug to satisfy collectors enthusiasm, which was available for that year only. A further version of this jug appeared in 1984 with a plain handle and this remained in production in a large size until 2000 and in a small size until 2002.
Bill Harper modeled a tiny version of this jug exclusively for Seaway China in 1993 in a limited edition of 2,500. The version with a plain handle was followed by further commissions for us with differently modeled handles as follows: red and white candy cane (1995), Christmas parcels (1996) and teddy bear (1997), all in a limited edition of 2,500. One further small size variation with a Christmas Cracker handle was produced for sale in the USA in 1996.