Felix the Cat seaside bucket

Exhibit
Felix the Cat seaside bucket (i)
location:
Arch Two , Area 9 Biscuit Tins (display)
Shelf 2

Felix about to ride a donkey over a cliff! [image info]

Felix and family pose for a photograph [image info]

A lithographed tinplate seaside-themed Felix the Cat bucket with lid and swivelling handle, probably made in the 1920s by E.T. Gee & Sons, Ltd., of Liverpool.

Details

The lithography on the bucket has four main areas of interest.

• There are two scenes that wrap around the bucket body, Felix and his family posing for a portrait of the beach, and,
• Felix gleefully riding a donkey, apparently towards the edge of a cliff, to the consternation of a child running behind.
• Two strips of Felix outlines circling the bucket, one at the top and one near to the bottom.
• The lid image of Felix.

The two strips (with black borders) probably loosely represent frames from a strip of celluloid showing an animation of Felix walking with his characteristic slouch, although the reference isn't totally obvious.

The top lid illustration shows Felix standing at looking at the viewer, wearing a red ribbon of scarf around his neck, with his trademark question-mark hovering over his head. To the right of where Felix stands, as a recursive logic joke, is a bucket - the very same bucket that Felix is illustrated on the lid of! So technically, the picture of a bucket shows Felix on the lid, standing next to a picture of a bucket with Felix on the lid, standing next to a picture of a bucket, with Felix on the lid ... ad infinitum.

E.T. Gee

E.T. Gee & Sons, Ltd. of Thomas Street, Liverpool, were founded in 1860 and were taken over by Metal Box in 1927.

External links

• A 'Felix the Cat' lithographed tinplate Toffee Bucket with lid and handle (christies.com)
• Felix the Cat toffee bucket for E.T Gee & Sons, Liverpool (bonhams.com)