Select Page
[wd_asp id=1]

Fentons Kittens

Kittens by Fenton

The Kittens pattern was advertised in the Butler Bros Catalogs in 1919 (a cup and saucer/plate were pictured).

It is not known why some pieces have 2 sets of three kittens and others have 4 sets of three kittens. Although sometimes called a miniature, since there is no larger version of the pattern it is technically just a ‘small’.

The pattern consists of groups of 3 kittens around a dish of milk. As stated, some pieces will have 2 groups on opposite sides while others have 4 groups evenly placed around the center.

The shapes are all made from just 2 molds – the bowl and cup.

Utilizing the mold was necessary, so the bowl mold was used for:

 

-Bowl

  • Round (as from the mold, a round, deeper, cereal bowl shape)
  • Square (four sides pulled up)
  • Ruffled (6 ruffle)

-Plate

  • Flat (also used as a saucer for the cup)
  • 2 Sides up

-Toothpick [aka Vase] (2 ¾”-3 ¼” tall)

  •  Pulled up, usually pinched in with four sides

-Spittoon (considered a whimsey shape since there are only a handful known)

  •   Pinched in with a ‘neck’ and a wide top (one spittoon was found with a note in it, supposedly from the mother of the boy who had it put in his lunchbox at the Fenton factory as a practical joke by fellow workers to imply that he was so young he only needed a teeny tiny spittoon)

The cup mold was obviously used to make the cup used with the saucer in the advertisement in the Butler Bros catalog.

There is now a reported nappy (or pin tray) which was created by pushing the front of a cup down almost flat – definitely considered a whimsey.

 

This pattern is most frequently found in marigold, it is also found in blue, a scarce amethyst, vaseline with a marigold overlay, aqua, powder blue with a marigold overlay and one white/clear iridized piece.