by (designer) Albin Döbrich; produced by A.P.M. (Vienna)
a Handpainted Porcelain Fennec Fox
circa 1911 (?)
For a creature so small and sweetly meek, porcelain preserves perfectly the Fennec’s character. Unlike appearances, this species of fox can be surprisingly loud and boisterous when either excited or angry, usually piercing one’s eardrums with a high-pitched, drawn-out squeak that is more likely to come from a crabby, bad-tempered door mouse than from anything larger. The delicacy of milky white lining this Fennec’s coat emulates the natural sheen of its realistic counterpart, with the watery brown touches flecked along its muzzle, forehead, ears and back simulating, perhaps, its softest parts. Its fur is also enormously fluffy along its inner ears, acting as a kind of naturally-insulating muffler for the sensitivity of the fox’s extra-fine hearing abilities. To some, the Fennec may be too funny-looking and queer to be taken seriously as a true fox, but criticism and empty teasing matter little to its kind - the Fennec has ears for only bigger and better things.
