The 40 Year Old Original Viking Glass Polished Bottom "Thumper" tough to come by in some colors!

I have the Original 1968 - 1969 Viking Catalog that came from the Viking Factory floor. It is neat to have some of these, old originals, because the Craftsmen at the time would jot notes in the Catalogs. Such is the case of the "Thumper" Rabbit. My Catalog shows this #6808 only made on in 1968 and written out in 1969 in the Catalog.

The "Thistle" Bunny has brought well over $50 each in the past and is probably most sought after.

I do not have the complete collection of these "Thumper" Rabbits yet. I wanted to complete this article at this time with what I had because, Mosser Glass is now reissuing "Thumper" in new colors.

This Mold is like a Cat with 9 lives!

"The Mold was designed and made by Harry Barth of Sisterville, WV who was associated with New Martinsville Glass Mfg. co. beginning in 1918. In the late 30's he was General Manager. The mfg was later dropped and eventual the Company became Viking in the early 40's. Harry Barth resigned from the Company in the early 40's to organize his own company under the name of Barth-Art Glass Co. What is now known as "Thumper" was one of his early creations. He had about 10 Glass Animal Figures that he later sold to Viking. All of his work was done in Crystal and some were Frosted."
This information was taken from an article written by The Miller's in the September, 1977 Rainbow Review Glass.

The Thumper on the left is a RARE Satin Thistle!

The 1968 - 1969 Viking Catalog showed "Thumper" in Persimmon on page 6. The Catalog Price List had in made in colors Avocado, Bluenique, Honey (amber), Persimmon and Thistle. It was NOT shown made in Ruby in 1968. So these would be the original 5 colors.

I have been logging the prices paid on Ebay for a number of these rabbits. I have never logged the price of the original Persimmon "Thumper" rabbit. I may have missed it but I think these Persimmon ones may be a tougher colors to get a hold of.

Many of the newly issued "Thumper" Rabbits were not issued in the older colors. So at this time I am going to go out on the limb and say the Persimmon "Thumper" may even be Scarce.

Avocado is a common Viking Color but NOT in the early issued Viking Glass "Thumper" Rabbit!

I will have to do a better job of listing the "Thumper" Rabbits that sell on Ebay. I have not recorded an Avocado "Thumper" sale either. There are very few of these original colors coming up for sale.

I will write more about the newer issued "Thumper" Rabbit colors in the future. This Scarce Avocado Green is one of many colors of green made by Viking. This Rabbit was made in other green colors but most were new issues. All the other Green colors are lighter and or have the Satin Finish. Avocado is not the most popular color. BUT! I think this little guy may take you a long time to find.

Amber is also a common Viking Color but NOT in the early issued Viking Glass "Thumper" Rabbit!

I think it is o.k. to repeat myself here because I waited a long time to get this Amber Rabbit. I just bought him of Ebay. Once in a while you can get one of these little rascals for under $30 but I never seem to get them bought for that. I have the values around $50 each and I think that is pretty close to what you are going to have to pay to get these originals all bought.

I now have the Bluenique colored "Thumper" in the Gallery. Just added in August of 2009. I usually wait until I have all colors to do an article but I need you all to have this information because of today's reissues in new colors. I will talk more on the new "Thumper" Rabbits later. These are all the original colors.

Bluenique is a common Viking Color but NOT in the early issued Viking Glass "Thumper" Rabbit!

I think it is o.k. to repeat myself here because I waited a long time to get this Bluenique "Thumper" Bunny. I just bought him of Ebay. Once in a while you can get one of these little rascals for under $30 to $50 but I never seem to get them bought for that. I have the values around $50 each and I think that is pretty close to what you are going to have to pay to get these originals all bought. I have the Bluenique "Thumper" valued higher because it seems fairly scarce!

This Bluenique "Thumper" is one of 2 that I have seen come up on Ebay from 2006 to 2009. It is one of the original 1968 issues that were not shown in the 1970 Viking Catalog!

Brown was made in the mid to late 70's but I have no Price List that indicates when the Brown "Thumper" was made. I am showing a Crystal and a very Light Blue also that I can not trace the production date.

The Light Blue color almost looks like the Azure Blue made in 1986 when Viking was in the process of changing hands. The Crystal could have been made almost anytime after 1968. I can't give a fair value to any of these scarce colors because I can not document the dates. They may have just been End Of The Day pours that were sold in the Viking Glass gift shop.

Spring Blossom Colors came in the 1980 Viking Catalog!

The 1970 Viking Catalog did not list the "Thumper" Rabbit. Actually "Thumper" didn't show up again until it was shown in Pink Satin Frost in the 1980 - 1981 Viking Catalog.

At that time the Viking Price List had "Thumper" shown in 3 colors, Pink, Green and Blue Satin Frost. These "Thumpers" on the right were only shown in the Catalog 1 year!

They sold for $15.95 Retail on 1980.

Dick and Pat Spencer's book "Glass Animals" show a few photos of the "Thumper" bunny. They have the value running between $25 and $40 dollars depending on color. I have these originals valued a little higher on my website.

Spring Blue and Spring Green colors were shown only in the 1980 - 1981 time frame!

The Spring Blue and Spring Green must have been made at this time also. I do not have these colors, plain Spring colors, listed in any Price List. There had to be a very short "turn" in the 1980 - 1981 time periods. These colors have to be very limited!

Some other items, in the Spring Blue and Spring Green colors, were shown in the 1981 - 1982 Viking Catalog but no "Thumper" Rabbits were shown or listed in the Price List.

I am more and more convinced that a lot of these different colors we see in the original Viking "Thumper" Rabbits were just sold in the Viking Store and not in the Catalogs.

Peach was a 1984 Color but "Thumper" was not shown in the 1984 Catalog!

This is another example of knowing when the color was made but no advertisement in the Catalogs on the item. I have to believe if you have this Peach "Thumper" in your collection you are blessed! Time will tell but this article is the most complete information available on these original "Thumper" Rabbits.

To my knowledge colors I am missing are Aqua, Pink, Bluenique and Ruby.

This is a Scarce Teaberry Color made in 1962. It matches the 1962 pieces perfectly. BUT! Thumper was not introduced until 1968?

The "Lilac" color made in 1980 to 1984 is very similar but somewhat lighter. For now I am going with the Teaberry color because it matches the base of my Teaberry Vases made in 1962 perfectly. SO! we have another Viking enigma!

This color is not shown or listed in any of my Viking Catalogs!



CONCLUSION:
I have an Article of the "BB Thumper" Rabbits also on this website. In the mean time let me know if you have the "Thumper" Rabbit in the original colors I need to complete the set for the website!