Mid-Century is an actual thing now, (notice the capital letters), and one of the design classics of the period was a set of flying ducks by the Stoke-on-Trent pottery, Beswick.
Beswick was a tight knit family firm which was ...
Mid-Century is an actual thing now, (notice the capital letters), and one of the design classics of the period was a set of flying ducks by the Stoke-on-Trent pottery, Beswick.
Beswick was a tight knit family firm which was renowned for its ability to produce high quality traditional Staffordshire figures and table ware from its formation in 1894. By the time John (Ewart) Beswick took over as Managing Director in 1934 the firm had prospered under three generations of Beswick management. However, he felt the future of the company lay in figurines and in 1939 recruited the brilliant Arthur Gredington as the company’s first full time modeller. Arthur had real talent and the company entered a golden age selling his accurate and realistic creation of animals of all kinds such as horses, dogs, cats, birds, wild animals, farm animals, fish and more all of the highest quality.
We are familiar with a group of 3 ducks but many variations were produced and, by the way, they were officially known as The Mallard Set.
They also made flying gulls,
pheasants,
king fishers
swallows,
woodpeckers,
blue tits, hummingbirds, pink legged partridges and more!
Beswick sold to Royal Doulton in 1967 and the factory finally closed in 2002. No more flying figurines – which makes them pretty desirable to many collectors. And then there are people who have happy memories of seeing them here:
proudly displayed by Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street on her new ‘muriel’. I love them and would quite happily put a set up in my home if only I could get hold of one but I am going to let Hilda have the last word today as her passion was quite wonderfully expressed – my thanks to www.cakeoven.co.nz for reminding me.
“I’ve come in here more times than I care to remember. Cold. Wet. Bone tired. Not a penny in me purse. And seeing them ducks and that muriel… well they’ve kept me hand away from gas tap. And that’s a fact.”
