Bunny Campione

Last updated

Bunny Campione
Born
Carolyn Elizabeth Fisher

August 1946 (1946-08) (age 77)
England
Occupation(s)Antiques expert, television personality
Employer(s) Sotheby's (23 years tenure, Furniture Department, Collectors Department 1973-1996))
Christies London Office (senior consultant 1997-2002)
Known forAppearances on Antiques Roadshow (1985-present)
Family Stewart Granger (uncle)

Bunny Campione (born Carolyn Elizabeth Fisher; c. August 1946) [1] is an English antiques expert known for her many appearances on the television programme Antiques Roadshow since 1985 and has published her own works on antiques. [2] [ failed verification ]

Contents

Biography

Campione is the daughter of Squadron leader Francis Colborne Fisher, of Mudeford, Hampshire, [3] and Iris (née Stewart), sister of British actor Stewart Granger. Campione became known as "Bunny" as a young child, after she was given a coat that had a hood with rabbit ears on it. She also later collected soft toy rabbits. She has been known to bizarrely claim that her given name is “Anastasia”.[ citation needed ] She studied at university in France and worked at the Bear Lane Gallery in Oxford for a year. [4] She then worked at Sotheby's for 23 years until 1996, gaining a wide knowledge of antiques, firstly in the furniture department and then the collectors' department. [5] She was a senior consultant at Christie's in London until 2002.

Campione lives at Daws Hall, a private nature reserve, in Lamarsh, Essex. Her husband Iain Grahame, Idi Amin’s old commander and friend, died on 4 September 2023. [6] She runs her own company, Campione Fine Art, buying and selling antiques on behalf of clients. She has a particular interest in, and knowledge of, automata, bird-cages, corkscrews, dolls, dolls' houses, miniature and early furniture, and soft toys. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatrix Potter</span> British childrens writer and illustrator (1866–1943)

Helen Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was her first commercially published work in 1902. Her books, including 23 Tales, have sold more than 250 million copies. An entrepreneur, Potter was a pioneer of character merchandising. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabbage Patch Kids</span> American doll brand

Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage Patch Kids' by Roger L. Schlaifer when he acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idi Amin</span> President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979

Idi Amin Dada Oumee was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.

<i>The Velveteen Rabbit</i> 1922 childrens novel by Margery Williams

The Velveteen Rabbit is a British children's book written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. It chronicles the story of a stuffed rabbit's desire to become real through the love of his owner. The story was first published in Harper's Bazaar in 1921 featuring illustrations from Williams' daughter Pamela Bianco. It was published as a book in 1922 and has been republished many times since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Handler</span> American businesswoman and inventor (1916–2002)

Ruth Marianna Handler was an American businesswoman and inventor. She is best known for inventing the Barbie doll in 1959, and being co-founder of toy manufacturer Mattel with her husband Elliot, as well as serving as the company's first president from 1945 to 1975.

<i>Antiques Roadshow</i> British television programme

Antiques Roadshow is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979, based on a 1977 documentary programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steiff</span> Plush toy company based in Germany

Steiff is a German-based plush toy company, founded in 1880, with headquarters in Giengen, Germany. The company claims to have made the world's first factory-made teddy bear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Rabbit</span> Fictional character

Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, and subsequently in five more books between 1904 and 1912. The six books by Potter featuring Peter Rabbit have sold over 150 million copies. Spin-off merchandise includes dishes, wallpaper, painting books, board games and dolls. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.

<i>The Tale of Peter Rabbit</i> 1901 book by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he gets into, and is chased around, the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother, who puts him to bed after offering him chamomile tea. The tale was written for five-year-old Noel Moore, the son of Potter's former governess, Annie Carter Moore, in 1893. It was revised and privately printed by Potter in 1901 after several publishers' rejections, but was printed in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1902. The book was a success, and multiple reprints were issued in the years immediately following its debut. It has been translated into 36 languages, and with 45 million copies sold it is one of the best-selling books in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freda Dudley Ward</span> English socialite (1894–1983)

Winifred May Mones, Marquesa de Casa Maury, commonly known by her first married name as Freda Dudley Ward, was an English socialite. She was best known for being a married paramour of Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VIII.

<i>The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies</i> Childrens book by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in July 1909. After two full-length tales about rabbits, Potter had grown weary of the subject and was reluctant to write another. She realized however that children most enjoyed her rabbit stories and pictures, and so reached back to characters and plot elements from The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904) to create The Flopsy Bunnies. A semi-formal garden of archways and flowerbeds in Wales at the home of her uncle and aunt became the background for the illustrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Warne</span> English editor

Norman Dalziel Warne was the third son of publisher Frederick Warne, and joined his father's firm Frederick Warne & Co as an editor. In 1900, the company rejected Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but eventually reconsidered and in October 1902, published the book to great success. Norman Warne became Potter's editor and they worked together on several subsequent books and related merchandise, such as soft toys and The Game of Peter Rabbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flatsy doll</span> Flat dolls made by Ideal Toy Company

Flatsy Dolls are flat dolls that were made by Ideal Toy Company from 1969 through 1973. Designed by Hank Kramer, Flatsy Dolls were originally marketed to little girls. Like many vintage dolls, Flatsy dolls are now collectors items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golliwog</span> Doll-like character

The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. It was reproduced, both by commercial and hobby toy-makers, as a children's soft toy called the "golliwog", a portmanteau of golly and polliwog, and had great popularity in the Southern United States, the UK, South Africa and Australia into the 1970s.

Jon Baddeley is a fine art auctioneer, an authority on scientific instruments and collectables, a broadcaster and an author.

Judith Henderson Miller was a Scottish antiques expert, writer, and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Fisher</span> English swimmer (1927–2022)

Brenda Fisher was an English long-distance swimmer. In 1951 she broke the women's world record for swimming the English Channel becoming a celebrity and she was given the British Sportswoman of the Year Award.

<i>Poppy Cat</i> (TV series) British television series

Poppy Cat is a British preschool animated television series, which first aired on 2 May 2011 and last aired on 5 February 2016. It is based on a series of books created by British illustrator and writer Lara Jones, and is a co-production of Coolabi Productions, King Rollo Films, Ingenious Media, and Cake Entertainment for Nick Jr. and Channel 5.

Florence Attwood was an English toy designer and maker who became chief designer at toy manufacturer Merrythought, producing the company's first range of toys. Attwood was responsible for some of the company's most iconic designs, including the signature Merrythought bear. Deaf from the age of two, she has since been remembered as an inspirational and pioneering figure, who "overcame many challenges" to forge a successful design career.

References

  1. "Carolyn Elizabeth CAMPIONE personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
  2. "Fair in aid of hospice". Watford Observer. 9 July 2001. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  3. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 4162
  4. Battie, David; Malcolm, Fiona (2005). The Antiques Roadshow. Mitchell Beazley. ISBN   1-84533-060-9.
  5. "Bunny Campione". Antiques Roadshow. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  6. "Major Iain Grahame, Idi Amin's old commander and friend, later sent by the British to negotiate with him – obituary". The Telegraph. 21 September 2023. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  7. Iain Grahame Rare Books - Fine Sporting, Shooting, Stalking, Hunting, Natural History and Africana | About Major Books, the antiquarian booksellers of fine sporting, natural h... Archived 4 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine