Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Thimble Collecting
Thimble is a word used for a small cap to protect the finger for use when sewing, and the name derives from Old English thyma and Old Norse thumall – the same root that gives up ‘thumb’ – and more specifically thymel a fingerstall. The root word really meant ‘swelling’ and words like tumour and thigh are also related. The great thing about collecting thimbles is that they are small and you thus need only a limited amount of space to house your collection, and even if you have quite a lot, you are still not going to have your house or flat totally dominated by them. In the main, too, they are generally highly affordable – unless, that is, you decide to go in for either precious metal examples of antique or even ancient ones, for the use of thimbles goes back into antiquity. A bronze Roman example, a metal detectorist’s find, was offered for sale a few years ago for £25. Indeed, one of the most expensive thimbles ever sold was a silver gilt one bought by an American collector from a UK auction twenty years or so ago for £18,000. It had provenance, having said to have been given by Queen Elizabeth I to one of her court ladies. A very fine French ivory thimble (something that will soon be untradeable) decorated with scrimshaw ducks round the rim recently made £360. Another antique form is the Nuremberg thimble, like the same city’s famous jettons, were made, also in bronze, around 1530, right at the beginning of the modern thimble as we know it. A Nuremberg thimble sold recently for over £250, but more commonly for £30-50, like the one illustrated which has the added bonus of a maker’s mark on the rim – a flower. By the later 18th century our newly fledged porcelain industry was producing thimbles notably Royal Worcester, occasionally with signed painted decoration. It was during the Victorian era that people thimble collecting became popular; practitioners are today called Digitabulists. Purely decorative thimbles, made for collectors or souvenir hunters come in many decorative styles including filigree work, scenes, plant and animal depictions, cherubs, borders, fleur-de-lys, sewing-related themes and, like the antique examples quoted above, come in a variety of different materials. My wife bought a cloissonné enamel one recently, probably Chinese and modelled as a Fo Dog or a tiger (it looks at first glance like an owl, but on closer inspection has fangs) for £1 and absolutely loves it. Working thimbles – these are the sparsely decorated thimbles that were made specifically to be used. Although these might not be as fancy, they carry a lot of value of their own nowadays and are highly collectable. Commemoratives, souvenirs, advertising thimbles and many other varieties can be had for very little money. At fairs, for instance, some dealers have a box of them at a fixed standard price, and sorting through them can produce all sorts of attractive ones. Some modern ones can also be pricey. I recently spotted a silver one assayed in Chester in 1962, in its original presentation box, very desirable to the collector of more decorative types, but at £175 I thought it over-priced; £20-30 would have been our estimate at Bamfords. More affordable were a pair of Edwardian silver thimbles in their original boxes priced more reasonably at £60 each. Both were decorated in good repoussé flower patterns and one had a decorative frieze, too. A box spotted recently at a local fair of silver thimbles was offering each item at £10. A good rummage armed with a loop to check the hallmarks might lead to a few little treasures that might show a slight profit, although the unit price at auction for a single silver thimble would be about £1.50 to £2, but they are always sold in groups unless particularly special. Another stall I came across recently had a splendid selection: a 1970s NASA commemorative, and a pewter example boxed by the same supplier (£4), several porcelain ones, including a single Royal Crown Derby example (£1.50). Regarding the latter, a full set of 15 RCD ones with box shouldn’t set you back more than £50 and the firm issued several sequences of them. Many of those I saw were boxed, and there were others in brass, plastic, bakelite (sought after, and often £5-8) and so on, and all very reasonably priced. I also spotted a good embossed 9 carat gold thimble by Henry Griffiths & Son, on sale at £90, although at auction, £30-40 might be more like it. 00
Historic Steam Railway Posters
When I was just five Maude, my nanny, was charged to take me off on holiday to Plymouth. I have no idea to this day why my parents could not go with me, but we were to stay with a relative of Maude’s for a few days. Clearly my parents were staying behind for some special reason, for no expense was spared: we were to travel on the Devon Belle, a short-lived Pullman express as it turned out. As a consequence, I was beside myself with excitement! At Waterloo, I was allowed to go down to the head of the train to admire the big blue Merchant Navy class engine (so coloured as an abortive experiment by the newly fledged British Railways) and say hello to the driver and his fireman; we were also given a small paper-covered illustrated booklet which I still have. I recall the journey vividly, but apart from being on Plymouth Ho, I cannot remember the holiday at all. It was not so long afterwards that I saw a very famous poster used by Southern Railway before the war, of a child in almost the same posture as I had been at Waterloo (albeit down at track level), looking up at the crew of ex-LSWR N-15 King Arthur class No. 755 The Red Knight, preparing to head the Atlantic Coast Express. It was memorably captioned in supposedly child’s handwriting, ‘I am taking an early holiday ’cos I know summer comes soonest in the south’. A 1925 black and white version (showing the engine number), was taken from a photograph by Charles E. Brown of 1924 which has ‘South for Sunshine’ below the illustration, and a modified version of the child’s declaration ending ‘….because it’s safer and quicker by rail.’ Today that poster in a sale would be estimated at over £1,500, and the earlier version at around £800. Which tells you that collecting original British steam railway posters is a rich man’s hobby. Yet they combine two elements for the collector: railway history and astonishingly fine work by distinguished artists. The railway companies which existed in some profusion prior to their grouping into four in 1923, all issued promotional posters of varying types. Some Edwardian ones are only worth £350-450 simply because they’re not especially artistic, yet these early ones are still collected and some can be amongst the least expensive. Yet the most memorable is the 1908 Great Northern Railway image by John Hassall of the ‘Jolly Fisherman’ accompanied by the ‘Skegness is so Bracing’ slogan; an originally will set you back over £2000 in good condition. From Grouping in 1923 to Nationalisation in 1948 the four companies – Southern, Great Western, London North Eastern and London, Midland and Scottish – really took poster design to new levels, employing a number of very famous artists, including Norman Wilkinson. I mention him, because his first work was in 1905 for the LNWR, but it was his work for the LMS that is most striking. Indeed, his view of the launch of TSS Duke of York brings to mind his wonderful frescoes in the entrance hall of Derby’s Railway School of Transport at Wilmorton, not to mention his work in several famous cruise liners. Other well-known views include the GWR’s Cornish Riviera posters, Stanhope Forbes’s LMS ‘Permanent Way – Re-laying’ and my favourite, Fred Taylor’s LNER Cambridge showing James Gibb’s King’s College with the Chapel behind. These tend to sell for £1,000-1,250 or above, depending on the artist and indeed the status of the subject. Some can comfortably reach £4,000 in good condition. The years of Nationalisation were dog days indeed for those of us who were obliged to use the railways regularly, the 1950s and 1960s especially – filthy carriages, abominable time-keeping, out-of-date stock, surly station staff, closures of services and constant strikes – only those over sixty or so will remember them now and smile wryly, whilst those of tender years continue to insist that all the ills of our now much more heavily used railways can be cured by a re-nationalisation, to being run by civil servants and political stooges. Yet in poster-making, dear old BR excelled, notably by employing artists like Frank Sherwin, Leslie Carr, Reg Lander, Claude Buckle and above all Terence Cuneo (1907-1996). Needless to say it is the latter’s posters which invariably make the best prices, and his genius of draughtsmanship, mastery of composition and facility with oils (not to mention his trade-mark mouse, invariably hidden somewhere in the composition) mark him out as exceptional. At the time I loved his early 1960s view of Clapham Junction, taken in an era when I was going back to school via the Atlantic Coast Express and loving every second of it. His view of Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash (painted for BR (W) to mark its centenary) is also most memorable, and £2,000 is around the minimum you might expect to pay for one of his, although we at Bamfords usually estimate slightly worn ones at £500 to £800 (expecting and usually getting better), although his ‘Tracklaying by Night’ poster was recently estimated by Bonhams at £1500-2000 in excellent condition, although the original painting for a poster of the Golden Arrow express, c. 1962 also with them, failed to sell against an estimate of £40,000 to £60,000. Nevertheless, for the original oils, therefore, add noughts! Yet the inter-war years were a golden age for the railways, for people didn’t go abroad for holidays, they travelled to places in England; they’d go on golfing holidays or shooting to Scotland, eat dinner and sleep on the train, and then get woken up with a cup of tea and kippers in the morning. Accordingly it was a golden age, too, for railway poster art. Another notable example was the colourful and then slightly risqué scene of mainly female bathers advertising the charms of Southport, painted for the LMS in 1937 by the Italian artist Fortunino Matania. Recently one sold for over £10,000. Yet
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Beswick Pottery Figures
John Beswick Ltd, formerly J. W. Beswick, was a pottery manufacturer, founded in 1892 by James Wright Beswick and his sons John and Gilbert, in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. The firm survived until in 1969 when it was sold to Doulton & Co. Ltd. They closed the factory in 2002 and the brand name John Beswick was sold on in 2004 to Dartington Crystal, which outfit resumed production. The pottery was chiefly known for producing high-quality porcelain figurines such as farm animals and Beatrix Potter characters and have become highly sought in the collectables market. The Dartington owned brand will still sell you items from a range of their classic pottery animals at prices ranging from around £16 for a seated piglet to £65, which sum will buy you an impressive-looking red stag. Based at the Gold Street works in Longton (Stoke-on-Trent), Beswick originally produced tablewares and ornaments such as Staffordshire cats and dogs. Yet when James Wright Beswick died in 1921, the company continued to expand under his grandson, John Ewart Beswick. In 1934 the introduction of high fired bone china meant they could produce high-quality figurines, such as famous race horses and champion dogs. The company was made a limited company, John Beswick Ltd, in 1936. An important change came in 1939, when Wolstanton-born Arthur Gredington (1906-1976) was appointed chief modeller and the firm began producing farm animal figurines which quickly became widely collected. Gredington’s range of no less than 190 rearing horsemen is one of the largest (and most popular amongst collectors) ever produced by the company. Not that the number 190 is anything but a notional one, for it is made up of minor variants of the basic 150 or so of Gredington’s horse figures. There were, for instance two versions of model 868 (a racehorse, jockey up), one with the jockey in an orange or scarlet jacket cut away at the waist sitting bolt upright. In the second version introduced in 1952 horse and rider have greater animation, the rider flung back by the motion of his steed. The commonest model of version two with a brown horse can be found for around £175. Yet these have fallen in price from around £250 a few years ago, although colour does make a difference, for a version two 868 in grey can sell for £650, whilst one in chestnut with damage to an ear sold for £2,124 in January, and yet a third, in rocking horse grey, the most sought-after colour, sold for £2,588. Version one is harder to come by, but the price for one with a brown horse rarely exceeds £500. The rarest of all Beswick wares is Spirit of Whitfield, a pony, modelled after the pit pony Kruger. An example of this item sold for £9,500 in London fifteen years ago. Under decorating manager Jim Hayward, there was a shift towards lifelike animal pieces, including cats, dogs, farm animals, fish and wild animals. Continued expansion enabled the acquisition of the adjoining factory in 1945 to accommodate offices, warehousing and new potting and firing facilities. In 1947, Lucy Beswick suggested bringing to life the illustrations in the Beatrix Potter books. In 1948, John Beswick secured the right to reproduce a range of 10 Beatrix Potter earthenware characters, the first of which was Jemima Puddle-Duck, modelled by Arthur Gredington. In 1952, Beswick began manufacturing a range of Disney characters, including Snow White, Mickey Mouse and Bambi. Along with the designs of James Hayward, the high-quality pieces they produced have become quite desirable. A Beswick model of a running hare, 5 inches high, model no. 1024, issued 1945-1963 was sold by us at Bamfords for an impressive £330 a decade ago now. Arthur Gredington retired in 1968 and the following year the company was sold to Royal Doulton and although animal figures continued to be produced, by 1989, the Beswick backstamp was dropped in favour of the Royal Doulton Royal Albert DA one. The popularity of the Beatrix Potter characters was a factor in re-introducing the range in 1998, specifically for the collectors’ market. But by the end of 2002, Royal Doulton ceased production of all Beswick products and in 2003 the Gold Street works were sold. In 2004 the Beswick name and product design rights were also again sold. The John Beswick name is now owned by Dartington Crystal, which continue to produce animal figurines using some original production moulds from the Gold Street works; they also produce vases under the John Beswick name. The Snowman and the Gruffalo figures are just some of the nursery figures still being produced. Yet if you want to collect, you should ideally be looking to buy items from the Gredington era (1939-1968) and the earlier the better. As usual, check for damage and wear. There is also a published price guide by Harvey May (no relation!) last republished in 2014, which gives some idea of current prices (which appear pretty stable at present) and mould numbering. Buying new is best avoided, as it will take decades before your purchase reaches the sum you paid, and there is always the danger that the manufacturer will over-produce, which always hobbles future prices. 00
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles : Collectible UK Comics
I can still recall, aged five or six, being taken out by my nanny to catch a train for a visit to the Science Museum at London – a favourite destination of mine at that age. On the way to our suburban station was a newsagent’s shop, with current titles and the day’s papers displayed at the door. One item caught my attention immediately: a coloured comic, most of the front page of which was covered with a superbly painted disintegrating spaceship. Apart from the fact that the presentation was streets better than anything else in my experience, the impact was immediate. I duly expended fourpence of my very limited pocket money (6d = 2.5p) on a copy and was hooked. I read it, later supplemented by the Beano (founded 1938), thanks to my parents’ forebearance in adding it to the newsagent’s delivery, until I was sent away to prep school four years later. The reason it was so superior was that Eagle was printed in colour photogravure (aided by Eric Bemrose) on good quality paper with artwork of superb quality by Frank Hampson. The founder and editor was Revd. Marcus Morris a Lancashire parson and Christian values informed the content without being either apparent or tiresome. This content was itself pleasing to me: PC 49, the bumbling Harris Tweed and his piratical oppo, Capt. Pugwash (later of TV fame), Luck of the Legion, not to mention Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future (flying through space quite effortlessly in the year 2000 which I felt perfectly plausible) pitting himself against the Venusian tyrant Mekon on his flying potty, not to mention Vora King of Space and other implacable adversaries, all supported by Spaceman Digby and Spacewoman Peabody. I also like the wonderfully well drawn cutaway version of transport wonders in the middle, especially when they dissected a Southern Pacific and put it in the original livery, three years after nationalisation! The Eagle, launched in 1950, was by no means that early a starter, for my second choice, the Beano (which gave me a more light-hearted view of the world), began in 1938, and I preferred it to its rival the Dandy, a year older, despite my enjoyment of Desperate Dan and his cow pies. The former survives, the latter which ended in 2012. Not for me, though, the Boys’ Own Paper, however (a little too earnest), which lasted from 1879 to 1967. Later after having to go and live with my seven cousins in the early 1960s, I was re-introduced to Eagle (much reduced in quality), along with its stablemates, Girl, Robin and Swift. Space precludes any attempt to adumbrate upon the virtues or otherwise of Beezer (1956-1993), Lion (1952-1974), Valiant (1962-1976), Knockout (1939-1963), Rover (1922-1973), Tiger (1954-1985), Topper (1953-1990) or indeed a poor thing called TV Comic (1951-1984) but back numbers of all (and others) are collectible and have a (generally modest) value. Funnily enough the Eagle attracts less money than some of the others, mainly because of its quality and popularity. It sold well (no. 1 sold out, 900,000!) and quality paper meant that it is far more durable than most. No. 1 would go today for around £150, later issues of the first volume (1950-51) around £70-£90 in mint condition but less than £10 in average state. Contrast this with Beano and Dandy: both were published by D C Thompson and the first one of each came with a (very modest) free gift, with Dandy a whistle and with Beano the following year a mask. Both, I might add, have been copied to deceive. Their appeal, magnified during the war, was irreverence and slapstick. Over ten years ago the former, complete and in good condition made £20,350, whereas one has to go back near 20 years to find a price for a first issue Beano, when one (with pressie) made £6,280, although you could comfortably double that figure today. In 1951 Dennis the Menace was introduced and the relevant issue might fetch £350 -£400 at auction, although by the time he had been promoted to the cover, his value in mint will have dropped to around £15. Dandy’s early issues vary (through condition) from £40 to £300, but the first four issues again can reach four figures, with later pre-war issues £1-20 and later still, just pence up to £5 and more recent ones no higher than £2. There are websites devoted to all the minutiae of these comics’ publication history, which one does need to have to hand to enjoy collecting them, but unless you have found a landmark issue in a vile state, just look out at your local car boot or general sales (such as we run fortnightly at Bamford’s) for editions in decent condition, from very fine to pristine. Most of these publications also produced annuals, and these too are highly collectable. Eagle’s first, in 1951 will make over £1000 in mint condition, although £40 should buy a worn copy, with declining values for subsequent issues, none of which are that rare due to the quantity published. Beano started its annual in 1940 with the war on and whilst a tatty one might be had for under £500, a near-mint one would be worth nearer £4000 and the remaining wartime issues tell a similar story, although with slightly diminished values. The variety of published comics is such that collecting old issues can be quite rewarding, especially if you really enjoy browsing the content, an inclination often exacerbated by an affliction called nostalgia. The only thing to say is, do your research first and then seek out the very earliest (or best landmark) issues you can and where possible in the very best condition. You should not have to pay too much on the whole, and buying miscellaneous bundles often reveals better condition copies (or rarities) within, which can be a good way of proceeding. Then one can extract the items one wants and put the remainder back into auction or onto e-bay. 00
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Railway Locomotive Name Plates
Last year we had a whole bunch of railwayana through Bamfords, mainly authentic relics of the great age of travel, but amongst them the nameplate of a locomotive built by the Southern Railway just after the Second World War and known to enthusiasts (in my time at least) as a ‘spam can’. These were large mixed traffic semi-streamlined engines, partly called after places in the West Country (where they were intended to serve) and partly after matters connected with the Battle of Britain and destined for service in Kent. The particular item was Battle of Britain Winston Churchill – the very locomotive which had pulled the late prime minister’s funeral train to Bladon, Oxfordshire, where he was buried. I am old enough to recall seeing it (despite poor reception in mountainous North Wales) on a black-and-white TV that January day in 1965. Such was the fame of this relatively short-lived machine that I knew that what we had was a full sized replica, and it duly sold for a couple of hundred pounds (non-replica) money, as it were. There are plenty of these around, although a new replica can cost you quite a bit more. Look out for one of the initial locomotive of the ‘Lord Nelson’ class (SR again) and you’ll have to shell out £790 for a solid brass copy in full size. But it got me thinking. If you can pay nearly £800 for a replica of a nameplate of a famous – say an ‘iconic’ – locomotive, what might the cost of an original be? Locomotives have borne names ever since Rocket and its rivals vied for supremacy at the Rainhill trials in 1829, so there are nominally a lot around. Yet 19th century survivals are fantastically rare most, sadly, were scrapped with the time-expired bearers of the name. Nearly everything now available for sale comes from the last generation of steam locomotives (I leave aside nameplates from diesel and electric locomotives: they are less sought after, usually of less good quality materials and commoner, despite still making relatively good money). Most engines with names were express passenger ones of various sizes. The handsomest were those on the locomotives of the old Great Western, cast in brass on heavy plates, often curved to fit over a wheel splasher. Modest Cobham Hall fetched £5,800 in 2010. Other companies used steel ones, usually smaller, although the Southern Railway did brass ones until the war. Rarity is often an indicator of price, so one works out the number of a particular class of engines built and multiplies the total by two (there being a name plate on either side of the engine). Thus Derbyshire-born Sir Nigel Gresley designed the not particularly memorable ‘Hunt’ & ‘Shire’ class of 4-4-0 locomotives in the 1920s. The LNER built forty two of them, meaning there must have been 84 nameplates, mainly counties but also names of particular Hunts. I recall sitting with my father around 1961 when we learnt from his newspaper that British Railways were scrapping these engines and, by applying to BR one could acquire a nameplate of one’s choice for about £75 – scrap value plus cartage. As one of these machines had been called The Craven, I urged Papa to put in an offer for it, but when they told him the price (which in retrospect he could well have afforded) he demurred. Yet it would have made a splendid investment today, 57 years later, for one sold not so long ago for £15,100! Another reason for them being scarcer than they are is that many were presented by BR to the institutions after which the engine had taken its name. Thus many ‘Battle of Britain’ class engines had their squadron number nameplates with their accompanying badges, enamelled onto a large attached oval, were presented to the relevant squadron HQs. Football clubs whose names had adorned LNER B17 class engines were presented with the relevant plates, and to all sort of stately homes received plates from Great Western Railway ‘Castle’, ‘Hall’, ‘Manor’ and ‘Grange’ class locomotives.. But to acquire these wonderful items, one requires fantastically deep pockets. Top price to date was a sister engine of world speed record breaking Mallard, called Golden Fleece. One plate alone went for £60,000 in December 2014, whilst another from its sister engine Golden Eagle fetched £31,000 two years ago. Mind you, less romantic names suffer price-wise: Another Mallard sister, prosaically named after a director of the company, Sir Murrough Wilson, only made a paltry £19,600! The nameplates from the equivalent top-link locomotives on the rival LMS also make similar money, although neither are much to look at compared with one from a ‘spam can’ or a GWR engine: ‘Princess Coronation’ class Pacific City of Liverpool made £36,900 (place loyalty, no doubt!) whereas Queen Elizabeth from a similar engine, but from its days as a streamliner, made £51,500. More affordable are brass nameplates of the Southern’s likeable but modest ‘King Arthur’ class engines, retailing at around £8,000 at present, although the obscure Malorian Sir Durnore made £8,600 not long ago, so heaven knows what King Arthur himself might command! In other words, it is fame and popularity which makes the big money. Take the sister engines of Flying Scotsman. Most were named after racehorses which had won classics in the forty years or so before the engines were named. This in itself resulted in some oddities, like Dandy Dinmont (survivor of a serious collision before the war), Call Boy and Galopin (geddit?). Thus, Minoru has recently sold for a very modest £7,000, but one of the more famous members of the class could add a nought easily – or very nearly. Industrial locos also often carried names. They were usually simple little engines and accordingly had simple names, like Jane, Mersey, Powerful, Diamond or Colliery No. 1. These plates can actually be affordable, and start at something in the order of £250 rising to £1,250 for better known ones. The added pleasure
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Royal Commemorative Mugs
Most commemorative objects, from coins to china plates, tend to cost a lot more to buy than you get back for re-sale, as the plethora of relatively modern specimens which come up for sale in Bamford’s general sales testify. Today you can expect to pay in the region of £10 or more for a 1953 Coronation mug, given free to most school children (including me) at the time. But it is not so much the occasion commemorated, but the manufacturer that made the item. For instance had one’s parents gone for a Wedgwood one for about £1 with a design after that striking and original inter-war artist Eric Ravilious, then today you might expect £250-280. The best names show the best returns, in other words. The earliest Royal images on mugs (or similar) were those of Charles I and Charles II which turn up on a few extremely rare tin-glaze mugs, for which you may expect to pay £5,000 or more assuming the condition is better than dire. Up until the mid-eighteenth century all commemorative mugs were hand painted, too, but towards the end of that era however, the invention of printing on pottery allowed for mass production. As a result you can find plenty of George III images making that monarch known to far more of his subjects as a result. Consequently, it is possible to put together a selection of mugs that chronicle the most significant events of the King’s 60 year reign. Those that celebrate the return of George to health after his first bout in mental difficulties sell for about £400, depending on condition. The reigns of his two sons George IV and William IV saw mugs to commemorate both their coronations and deaths. These tend to cost £300 or more, although royalty was not the only subject to catch the potters’ eye. Heroes of the wars against France, Nelson and Wellington in particular were at a premium. Today it seems to be Nelson who outshines Wellington in popularity. A Nelson, blue printed mug used to make around £400 but since the bicentenary of Trafalgar in 2005 prices have increased noticeably, whereas the bicentenary of Waterloo had a notably less inflationary effect on Wellington’s. For the new collector, the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901 offers the most opportunity with prices starting at £20. Her Coronation (1838) mugs have been the subject of debate amongst collectors as to whether they were made in Staffordshire or South Wales, although in either case auction estimates hover around £750-850 for examples in good condition. Fortunately Victoria’s Golden and Diamond jubilees of 1887 and 1897 offer richer pickings and more affordable ones, too. A good maker such as Doulton produced Jubilee bone china mugs in several colour schemes, now fetching around £120 for a clean example. Earthenware Jubilee mugs by lesser known makers can regularly be found for £30 and less but some of these bear images of the old Queen which she would have found less than flattering. The advent of the new century saw more in the way of Coronation mugs: Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI and the Queen all provoked a welter of commemoratives of varying quality. For most a price of between £10 and £40 should be the norm, and at Bamfords they turn up our general sales rather than in Fine Art ones. People often mistakenly assume that because Edward VIII reigned only 10 months and abdicated without being crowned, his commemoratives will be scarce, but this is not the case. In fact every enterprising pottery in the country put out commemoratives in anticipation of his coronation, and they had to be sold off inexpensively when he decided to give it all up for love. One of the best is, surprisingly Burleigh earthenware, but designed by Derbyshire’s own Dame Laura Knight, which sells for £50-60. As we are currently remembering the slaughter in the trenches and elsewhere occasioned by the Great War, mugs relating to this conflict have edged up a little being usually in the £30 to £60 bracket. In more recent years subject matter has included our Queen’s two Jubilees but more importantly her children’s rite of passage. At home I found a mug commemorating the inauguration at Caernarvon Castle of the Prince of Wales in 1969 by Delphine pottery, and royal weddings have generated a wide variety from Princess Anne through to that of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (with Meghan and Harry to come pretty imminently). The 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana generated a plethora of mugs, some pretty dire, but one in bone china by, say, Caverswall sold for a bit over a fiver in 1981 would now fetch £25 or even a tad more, for Caverswall is a good maker, whereas mugs by less well regarded firms go for prices nearer £8-12. Of course, here in Derbyshire, it is often worth going for Royal Crown Derby examples. They are very good quality, for which initially one would pay a great deal comparatively, but second had examples in good condition with their boxes are still highly collectible, although if you bought one new, it will take a few decades to make your money back. 00
