If you “follow” fine china and porcelain, you instantly recognize the Collie in this image as a Herend piece. The famous fishnet style that adorns most of Herend animals took form in 1858 when a Herend painter became inspired by a fish scale design he saw on a Chinese porcelain plate; he painted a similar pattern onto a rooster figurine to imitate feathers, and the rest is history. The fishnet design now a Herend signature that’s applied to hard-paste porcelain figurines. The most familiar color for the pattern is blue, thanks to its popularity in the 1950s, but black was the pattern’s original and only color.

Herendi Porcelánmanufaktúra Zrt., or the Herend Porcelain Manufactory, was founded in 1826 in the town of Herend, Hungary, and specialized in luxury gilded and hand painted porcelain. One of its most famous “coups” was producing perfect replica replacement pieces for the Meissen china service owned by Count and Countess Esterhazy in 1844, and in truth, a lot of Herend’s early productions imitated work put out by the Meissen and Sevres factories in Europe. After the fall of Communism in Hungary, the factory was privatized, and now 75% of it is owned by management and workers.

Herend creates many dog breeds, including the Bulldog, Chihuahua, Golden Retriever, Scottie, Labrador Retriever, West Highland White Terrier, Poodle, Corgi, and Pug. These pieces are collectables, retailing on average for $275.00 (the Collie in the image is currently at auction, and as we write, the current bid is $25), and we suspect that pieces are retired since we couldn’t find the Collie among current breeds offered by Herend.