Bonzo The Dog

I dug this interesting little figurine in a 1920s-1930s city dumpsite.


Like most figurines, I usually don't do much research on them, but this one seemed special. As you can see, theres an unnatural hole on the top of the body of the dog. I wondered what this was. A candleholder, maybe?

The Research Process
I started by looking up "Vintage dog candleholders". I found pictures like this, so I was getting somewhere.

I remembered the gold luster on the dog, so I added gold luster to my keywords.

Then, I stumbled upon this picture. Both my figurine and this one had a similar hole. This could either have been a pincushion holder, toothpick holder, or planter!


Now that I knew what to search, I started entering keywords like "Lusterware dog pincushion holder". One of the pictures called the dog by the name "Bonzo".



Curious, I searched "Bonzo the dog pincushion holder". I found an eBay store that was selling Bonzo collectibles. That's when I found the match!


 Even the fly on its fail matches up!

I still don't know for sure if it's a pincushion holder, because other listings show similar items listed as planters or toothpick holders.

Who is Bonzo?
Bonzo the dog was created in 1922 by a British cartoonist named George Studdy. Due to Bonzo's popularity amongst children and adults, companies were eager to create Bonzo merchandise that would appeal to the public. Bonzo books, salt and pepper shakers, keychains, and figurines were just some of the merchandise mass produced in the 1920s. Production was not only limited to England, but expanded to other countries such as America and Japan.



Bonzo Collectibles


Thanks for reading!