Awesome Antique “Squirrel Eating Nut” Doorstop Circa 1900. Getting Tougher to Find! Identified as Bradley & Hubbard See Comments Below. Approx: 11.25″ High x 9.75″ Wide, 9.65 lbs. This sale is for the Squirrel in Video and all other pictures. This one is a gem. Features a cute Gray Squirrel standing on a log & eating a nut. We believe the paint is original though it does have some wear as shown in pictures & video. There are few small little (paint roller cast off) white paint dots on the lower section & we did not attempt to remove them. Background Information from on-line sources: There were dozens of similar size, weight & styled “Squirrel Eating a Nut” doorstops going back 35+ years in sales records online (these are professional subscription research sites). Bradley & Hubbard appears to have produced these squirrels for at least a few years in slightly varying styles over that time & there were likely a few companies who may have tried to mimic them, but those are fairly obvious at close examination by collectors. There is a 2 hole & 3 hole design. By that we mean, when you look at the doorstop (especially from the back), there are either 2 or 3 holes in the cast iron in the arm to mouth & head areas. The highest value B&H ones produced have greater detail & have the 3 holes as mentioned. All of those were painted in tones of brown hair on the squirrel. Of course, depending on condition & other factors, prices vary greatly. Note: It was very common for makers of the old cast iron pieces (banks, toys, doorstops, etc) to use the same molds for a long period of time in which sometime molds can get build up in them causing items to lose some definition to fine details like hair, eyes & other much as a printers block in the old days would lose detail as more copies are made. Sometimes companies would slightly modify molds as some broke or are slightly damaged as well. We think this 2 hole style was released sometime after the more detailed ones, but there were additional ones that had far less fine detail than this series as well & still bring a fairly high price. Some versions with very little refined details may not even be B&H made & may have been sand cast reproductions, although they are still usually identified as B&H by sellers. As one expert told us, the details are in the details & that makes sense. We only dusted the doorstop off and gently wiped with a damp cloth. We do not like to over clean such items for obvious reasons. Items with video provided may appear a little darker than actual due to our video capacity at this time. Photos should be closer to actual appearance. We do this often. Please follow our store if you love rare antiques, primitives & collectibles of many types. We scour the land for the rarest & neatest of items for our Buyers who love them. We offer everything from rusty industrial to fine art by renowned US and foreign artists. We have Historic American, Antique advertising, Salesmen samples, Oil Paintings & sculptures by noted artists, Farm Primitives, Antique lighting fixtures & Aladdin lamps, militaria, Classic Comics, Sports Memorabilia & much, much more. It is our honor to offer these treasures to you.
