The seller of the PapaTed collection listed this for 2.99 and I couldn't believe I got it. The little porcelain bisque snowman in tophat is worth FAR more than that as he is pretty rare. In my entire collection I only have him in a couple of other instances and he is my favorite snowman. Notice like all snowmen he is NOT smiling. I think it is the Asian take on the matter. None smile and many are actively frowning! I remember on one of the doghouse coconuts I noticed the snowman was seriously frowning and looking unhappy or unfriendly (take your pick). When it occurred to me that this may have had to do with Japanese cultural sensibilities. As I understand it the husband never drinks at home but may often get drunk in those little outside tent drinking places before reeling home. Perhaps he is in the Doghouse?! I still am not sure why the unsmiling snowman.
In this little Hacienda (due largely to the Fiesta paint job as the house type could easily be a coconut), very little work was necessary as it was fairly clean. However the cornstarch treatment failed to remove some of the foxing of the painted surface so I undertook to repaint areas of the base. Also had to remove the house to get the "Windoor" in and that needed paint touch up as did the cracked fence and replacement post. The German glass glitter did it's magic and it looks beautiful once more. Far from a giant the base measures just a bit under 6" and the width is just under 3 1/2" and about 3 5/8" high. By the way I always use a toothpick to roll up the paper fence post and it helps secure it and is less likely to get knocked off. This was a suggestion of Ted's to me and it works like a charm.
I replaced the tree as the original toasty one was missing. I would have had to do this anyway.

Tom, So glad to see at least some of Ted's collection ending up in such good hands!

Tom, congrats on getting this with the snowman! Nice fixup, too.

Looks great, Tom.

Maybe the snowman is unhappy because he knows spring is coming....