The smaller they are the cuter they get! That is certainly true of this Minnie Mouse miniature planter. Just big enough for one flower or succulent. But with Minnie, one flower has always been enough!

Rendered in a fairly crude style, some might lean toward the opinion that ‘she is so ugly she’s cute’, which is the case with most early Disney merchandise. But other than the wobbly face detailing, the rest of the piece is quite well done:

Minnie holds up a flower in her right hand while grasping an open bag with her left. So the concept is that she is carrying a bag of flower. Not ‘flowers’. Remember, there is room for only one!

These ceramic planters are notorious to keep clean if you’re not using them for their intended purpose. With the hollow body, dirt and dust can collect where it is hard to clean.

We have a trademark of Walt Disney and a place of manufacture simply given as USA. No other information is given, even on the bottom.

You may wonder why more colour was not applied in the painting. For example, why are her ears black but her head is not. This was likely done to make the manufacturing easier and less expensive. Also, the American Bisque Company produced a similar style of ceramic functional figures in the 1940’s that had the same basic design elements. So it seems it was an accepted rendering of the characters at that time. So this planter may be from the same period.

To see an example for comparison, I have a set of Mickey and Minnie Salt and Pepper Shakers that you can look at. The post also contains an assortment of other examples from across the years.