Barbara Bailey created Bunnykins line

Barbara Vernon Bailey, 92, an English nun whose whimsical watercolors inspired Royal Doulton's enduring line of Bunnykins nursery dishes and provided the model for a later range of playful Bunnykins figurines, has died.

Ms. Bailey, also known as Sister Mary Barbara, was born in Woore, Shropshire. She died May 4 in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

She was the daughter of Cuthbert Bailey, general manager of Royal Doulton's factory at Burslem, in Stoke-on-Trent.

In 1934, a few years after she went into religious life at the Priory in Sussex, her father asked her to work up some watercolors of the rabbits she sometimes drew for her students or on her letters home to her family. He thought some of the drawings might be useful for a new line of nursery dishes his employer wanted to develop for children.

Sister Mary Barbara obliged. "I adored him — I would have done anything he asked," she told writer Maggie Parham, who interviewed her for The Independent of London in 1999. And Bunnykins was born.

"Mugs with a story and pottery with a pedigree," Royal Doulton said in its sales pitch.

Among the original characters, which included Billy, Mary, Reggie, Farmer, Freddy and Mother Bunnykin (the "s" on Bunnykins was added later), was Mr. Bunnykin, a pipe-smoking, spectacle-wearing gentleman obviously modeled after the painter's father.

The clear, crisp-lined watercolors she sent home to her father were full of wit and minute observation and, perhaps, a slight homesickness for the coziness of family life, Parham said. "She painted rabbits cooking, picnicking, fishing, dancing in the moonlight, playing golf, riding on dodgems, kissing under the mistletoe. The mothers she dressed in blue 'in honor of Our Lady.' "

Work of this kind was not prohibited by Sister Mary Barbara's superiors at the convent, but it was not encouraged either, so she often worked at it late at night by candlelight. During the day, she taught the history of art, fine art and Russian.

The Bunnykins line of dishes was an instant hit and, for the next several years, Sister Mary Barbara continued to draw the designs for the dishes, which were carried out at Royal Doulton by artist Hubert Light.

Sister Mary Barbara stopped drawing Bunnykins more than 50 years ago.

Ed Pascoe of Pascoe and Co. in Miami, a large retailer of Royal Doulton collectibles, said Bunnykins works remain popular because "they are sentimental and emotional pieces." He said they are valued from $43 to $200 for new pieces and up to $3,000 for vintage pieces.

The line has inspired books and a collectors club, Cottontales, that shares information on new products, collectors fairs and other matters of interest to Bunnykins' many fans.

Bunnykins also are the subject of a BBC radio program, "The Bunnykins Business," scheduled to air on June 7.

In 1999, Sister Mary Barbara told Parham that although her father appreciated her artistic bent enough to ask her for drawings, he would never allow her to take lessons.

"He always said, 'If you try to teach a little talent, you snuff it out. If you leave it alone, it will grow,' " she said.