Sunday, December 30, 2012

Seven Dwarfs 1949 Four Color Comic (Humpty Dumpty)

The 1949 Walt Disney's Seven Dwarfs comic book continues here from an earlier post with this seven page story, The Seven Dwarfs and Humpty Dumpty. We not only meet the nursery rhyme egg but also his little brother. Plus there's the giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk who made his premiere two years earlier in the 1947 Fun and Fancy Free.


















The rear endpaper contains a short comic about Sleepy.



And the back cover has one on Dopey.

Illustrations and text copyright Disney. Posted here for historical documentation purposes only.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Vintage Norwegian Christmas Lunchbox

According to information found online, this lunchbox was manufactured for Grundvig & Engelsviken in Norway by Foblik which is short for "Forenede Blikkfabrikker" (United Tin Factories), producers of numerous Disney-themed tins in the 1930-40s. Grundvig & Engelsviken was a fish packing company established in the early 1900s by Carl Grundvig and Ole Engelsviken in the city of Fredrikstad.




The tin was issued circa 1940, and it likely contained Christmas herrings. The lid is bordered by a mistletoe design and reads "God Jul!" ("Merry Christmas" in Norwegian). Snow White appears to be serving the fish on a tray. The two animals on the floor are a chipmunk and squirrel, but it's interesting that they've been given the markings of a skunk. Was this a not-so-subliminal message about the odor to be found within the tin?




In the wrap-around illustration, the Seven Dwarfs march under the stars through the snow-covered forest. Each is seen carrying a sardine tin as they head home to the cottage.





The "with permission of" copyright marking reads "MED TILLATELSE AV: WALT DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE LTD."



Tin measures approximately 7" x 5.25" and 3.5"deep.



Lunchbox is complete with latch and handle.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Princess Cocoa Tins

These hot chocolate tins were sold as a pack at the theme parks circa 2004-2008. The set included three 2.5 oz containers featuring Snow White (with white powder that turns purple in water), Cinderella (blue) and Aurora (pink). Each stands 3.25" high.





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In addition, the hot chocolate mixes were also sold separately in 14 oz. containers (8" tall). As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of Snow White tins. So my wife told me to pick this one up when we were at WDW back in 2008. But I had my eye on some other must-have collectible, something I've long since sold off and forgotten about. I passed on the tin, thinking it would be there next trip. It wasn't. Ugh!

It's been several years now and the tin rarely shows up on ebay. The one time I found it, the seller was asking way too much and wouldn't budge on price. So I was pleasantly surprised this past month when once again an auction appeared. This time the price was right and I got it!

A tall, handsome Snow White tin...



Images from the Filmic Light Collection.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

1938 Snow White Bisque Figurines from Japan

Bisque porcelain is unglazed white ceramic ware. A popular use for bisque was the manufacture of dolls and figurines. This Snow White set was imported from Japan by the George Borgfeldt Corporation, NYC, circa 1938. Hand-painted.

A couple different sizes were produced. In the smaller set, the dwarf figures measure approximately 2.5" tall and Snow White 3.5".







Dan Alexander of the Dizmentia site has provided us with some close-up shots of the Dopey figure. The piece came from his grandmother's collection which she'd acquired during the movie's initial release in the late 1930s.




Here's a nice shot of the entire set from Major Pepperidge of Gorillas Don't Blog.



And another look from Heritage Auctions.



The dimensions of the smaller box are 5" x 9" x 1.5".




The larger set has a box size of 9.5'' x 17'' x 2.5''. The dwarfs stand approximately 4.875" tall, Snow is 6".

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Disney Studio Xmas Cards, 1938-39

In 1938, the Disney Studio continued its tradition of sending out Christmas cards. (See the Snow White 1937 version.) Here we have a wonderful little storybook-style production with a sleeping Dopey on the cover. It features several illustrated pages and measures approximately 6" x 7.5". The back is blank

Dopey fast asleep...



Forest animals...



Three Little Pigs and Donald plus Pluto and Grumpy...



Mickey...



The Disney feature-length movies...


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Bonus: Here's the 1939 Disney Studio Christmas card. The storybook-style continues with characters from Pinocchio. Most of the artists whose signatures are printed on the inside page also worked on Snow White. It's just amazing how consistent the Disney quality of effort was, even on something like this.





All images and additional info courtesy of Rick Payne via dadric's attic.