Pair of Miniature Staffordshire Poodles Proudly Holding Baskets in Their Mouths

I have to confess to usually not being a fan of these Staffordshire Figurines when they are adorned with the accessories of baskets but then I came across this pair. For me they combined wonderfully the naive charm of early Staffordshire figurines with the more formal pose with the baskets. But I think it really was their faces that made it work for me with their wonderful eyebrows above the little black dots for eyes and each with a lovely pink muzzle and large nostrils as they carry their blackberry coloured baskets. The decoration although naive is also I think fine in quality giving that wonderful animation to the faces. This pair of Poodles are almost certainly from one of the Staffordshire Potteries, I believe porcelain and I do think are likely to be quite early dating to circa 1860. They both sport the fashionable Lion Clipped Coat, with shredded clay being used for their manes, their tails and the cuffs on their back legs. The shredded clay decoration has also been used for the foliage in their baskets, no brightly coloured flowers for this pair, it is more like they are offering you a basket of moss. They stand on shaped oval bases with a lightly impressed pattern and the remains of a gold coloured line along the edge.