As a Ceramic Artist, the Connor's display of their collection of Beswick Ware intrigued me and I found the pieces with the lady bugs very amusing.
I wrote to Lesley Connor when I was working on resizing and labeling the photos to find out more about this collection -- this is what she wrote back:
Thanks to the Connors for such a wonderful display."All the pieces were Beswick Ware, Made in England. Everyone is familiar with the black standing dogs which were on the left in the front but everything on there was Beswick.
The white guys with ladybirds and the toothache guy are called "fun models" in the 1996 book we have of Beswick Animals. There is probably a newer version out by now but all those pieces are shown in this one. You will find these also made by Sylvac, Gobel, in Japan and
unmarked. My book tells me they were first issued 1939, 40 & 41 thru 1969,70 & 71 depending on each piece.
The bookends were issued between 1934 and 1966, the ashtrays 34 - 65 and the blue pieces between 34 - 67. I thought about bringing the book for the display but completely forgot about doing that. I love what you can find in a book! Since I am giving date, the larger black Scot was issued 1965 - 1990 and the smaller one 1993 to present (1996 book)."
