Hank Ketcham introduced Dennis the Menace as a cartoon character in 1951. Recently, we wrote that we had never seen a stuffed Dennis doll. We’ve now heard from dozens of readers who have seen or owned one.

A North Dakota reader wrote that she has five Dennis dolls from the 1950s and ’60s. The dolls range from 8 to 16 inches tall. A reader from New Jersey still has the doll she bought in the 1950s.

A Georgia reader said she remembers ordering a Dennis doll for her son from the Sears Christmas catalog in 1967 or ’68. The doll was at least 12 inches tall. It had a plastic head with a stuffed cloth body.

So far, we haven’t heard from a reader who has an all-cloth doll  a doll with a stuffed head and body.

A silver-plated tea warmer  a teapot that hangs above a burner  has been in our family for generations. It has not been cleaned for many years.

The pot is shaped like an Aladdin lamp with fluted sides. The marks on the bottom include the word “Gorham” and an anchor within a shield. How old is it, and should we clean it?

Gorham’s 1884 catalog shows silver-plated teapots with fluted sides. This is about the same period that self-warmers became popular. Your tea warmer probably dates from the end of the 19th century.

You can clean the silver using a commercial silver polish and lots of elbow grease. Once the set is clean and shiny, you should give it a place of honor in your dining room.

My mother received a bronze figure of a dog as a wedding present nearly 50 years ago. It’s 10 inches long and 8 inches tall, and it’s signed “E. Delabrierre” under the dog’s right front leg. The dog is a retriever, and he’s holding a mallard in his mouth. The base is wooden. Could this be an original, or is it a reproduction?

Paul-Edouard Delabrierre (1829-1912) was born in Paris. He was an important member of the “animalier school” of sculptors  artists who sculpted animals. These artists did not work with bronze but sculpted in clay.

Craftsmen at a bronze foundry formed molds using the clay sculpture, then they cast the bronze and finished the bronze sculpture. So a high-quality sculpture required high-quality workmanship from both the artist and the foundry.

The foundry was free to continue casting the same sculpture, even after the death of the original artist.

Collectors prefer bronzes cast during the sculptor’s lifetime, but it is often impossible to establish a casting date. More serious problems can arise for collectors when a new mold is cast from an original bronze.

The biggest clue to this is the sculpture’s size. A “cast from a cast” is smaller than its original. It also lacks detail and has coloring that’s too even  with no depth or shading.

I just inherited an odd piece of jewelry that looks like a stickpin with two shanks. The points of the pin go into a cap that has wires dangling from it. It is a family heirloom, dating back to about 1900. How was it used?

You might have an electric scarf pin. A 1902 catalog shows a selection of pins that attached to a battery.

The pin was worn on a scarf, and the wires and battery were pocketed. A small light bulb was part of the decorative top of the pin. These pins are very rare.

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