Josie Firmin Northington China England Hand Painted Musical Cats Coffee Mug Cup

Description

Vintage 1980's Josie Firmin Northington China England Hand Painted Musical Cats Coffee Mug Cup
This is a vintage, 1980's early mug by the artist Josie Firmin whose work, particularly cat pieces, are highly collectable.  This is a clean, unused pre owned mug with no chips, cracks, or crazing.  The mug measures 4 inches high by 3 inches in diameter and holds 10 ounces of your favorite beverage.  The design features Josie Firmin's signature whimsical cats singing, playing the flute, and the violin.  There is a flaw in the hand painting of the flute playing cat's striped shirt at the lower edge as shown in the 6th photo.
Josie Firmin opened the Northington China company in 1985 where it ran for 4 years until 1989 before she moved to a larger premises and renamed it the Cosmo China company.  Josie studied Textile Design at art school but a three month internship in a textile studio put an end to her fashion industry ambitions, ‘It was like a sweatshop!’, Josie says of her time in textiles.
Luckily Josie could draw on her other talents and began illustrating children’s comics, working on for her dad, Peter Firmin, on the classic children’s comic, Ivor the Engine. A job on Transformers followed, although she was moved onto Care Bears as her explosions were ‘too colourful’.  It was only a matter of time before the publishers came knocking and a series of successful children’s books soon hit the shelves.
Josie bought her first kiln in 1984, recruiting friends and family to help, as demand for her hand painted designs increased.  Her style is a humorous take on reality, refined over years of observing people and animals.