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Beatrix Potter & Peter Rabbit Beswick Figurines

Tales from a country antique shop. A long time ago . . in a galaxy far far away . . Had a phone call from a gentleman called Fred who was cleaning out his aunt's house.The trouble was, his wife was giving him a hand! The reason for the call was that they'd found 'some rabbits' amongst his aunt's bits and pieces. It took me a few minutes to work out if they were of the furry variety or the easier to keep pottery sort.

OK folks . . here's a little puzzle for you................

Imagine you come across these two little beauties in our local antique shop and you fancy collecting a bit of Beatrix Potter Beswick because you've heard that it's collectable and you think that Peter Rabbit is rather cute. Forget the prices for a minute . . which one would you buy? Stuck??

Scroll down a little to the next picture and see if that helps.

Oh dear . . . . . it seems that one of the Peters is missing an ear! So that should make the choice very simple yeah?

Unfortunately nothing is as it seems . . . so read on and let's see how to resolve the dilemma . . .

Beatrix Potter published several books about animals her first being The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902.

Royal Doulton was founded in 1815 and already specialising in figurative sculpture.

Miss Potter approached the Lambeth studio in 1908 with a view to having her own animals produced in ceramic. An earlier contract with another company made any arrangement with Doulton impossible and it was not until 1948, sadly after Miss Potter's death, that the Beatrix Potter figures were finally produced by the John Beswick factory.

This arrangement continued successfully until the late 1960's when Ewart Beswick was ready to retire but had no heir.

The Royal Doulton group acquired the Beswick factory in 1969 and when the modeller Albert Hallam retired in 1975, Graham Tongue became the head modeller at the Beswick studio and added many new characters to the range in the 1980's.

Beatrix Potter figures have become highly collectable and so far, the 1990's has seen Graham Tongue develop the Beatrix Potter collection for the 100th birthday of Peter Rabbit in 1994. 1997 saw yet more celebrations as Beatrix Potter figures had been in continuous production for Beswick for 50 years.

19 figures were withdrawn in 1997 making more than 60 retired figures for collectors to find.

Quite a task and getting more difficult each year so how does one handle this situation .

A long time ago . . in a galaxy far far away . .
Had a phone call from a gentleman called Fred who was cleaning out his aunt's house.The trouble was, his wife was giving him a hand!

The reason for the call was that they'd found 'some rabbits' amongst his aunt's bits and pieces. It took me a few minutes to work out if they were of the furry variety or the easier to keep pottery sort.

Well his wife was a keen TV fan - especially of the lunchtime 'buy cheap and sell expensive' type of antique/collectable programmes. She was convinced that they'd stumbled on a fortune with the rabbits because they were EXACTLY the same thing that had fetched top money only the other day on TV while she was having her soup and sandwiches. Our telephone conversation continued like this. Fred remember, was on the other end of the phone talking to me, but having to listen to his wife's advice with his spare ear.

"It's a rabbit with a blue coat and there are marks on its bottom"

A few further questions ascertained that the marks were on the base of the pottery figure.
"Are the marks in brown or gold?" I asked
"Yes" replied Fred. I could tell it was going to be an uphill struggle!

"I really need to know just which colour" I continued "Well it's difficult to tell in this light - it's sort of a browny gold"

Next sound I could just hear was Fred's wife saying, tell her it's like the one on the telly on Tuesday lunchtime.

"It's OK Fred, I heard that, but it doesn't really help. Any possibility of slipping them into the shop so we can pinpoint the date accurately"
"Yes I'll bring them in tomorrow, but could you just let me know what they're worth today"

Bless him, he wasn't giving in!!

This happens all the time and sometimes it's fairly easy to give a rough estimate over the phone, but in this case, almost impossible.

As you've guessed, the rabbits were Beswick's Beatrix Potter range
and the one in question was Peter Rabbit

So now we've got the make and the specific item, but still a few problems.

So can individual figures be identified and valued quickly?

I'll try to simplify the process as follows:The characters name always appears together with the following marks . . .

1948 - 1954 There were two variations of the backstamp shown below. The words Beswick and England, written in gold, formed a circle. A copyright notice may or may not appear. This was used on the first 19 figures.

The 'Circular' Gold Backstamp is shown highlighted for clarity. This is the 'original' Beswick backstamp and was used on 19 figures. A similar GOLD mark but in straight parallel lines "Beswick above England" was used on 2 figures of the same dates.

Figures carrying this and the gold parallel Beswick England stamp are dated between 1948 and 1954.

Please note however that there are copies and fakes out there. Usually the fake product looks 'cheaper' and less well finished but that is not always the case. If you are offered a cheap price on a figure with the circular/parallel gold backstamp then BEWARE.

1955-1972 The words Beswick and England formed an oval in gold letters. The words F Warne & Co Ltd appeared above copyright. Used on 38 figures.

The gold oval backstamp. Again shown highlighted for clarity.

This was used on 38 figures plus 4 variations. The words Beswick and England are printed in gold as an oval shape.

Figures with this gold stamp are dated between 1955 and 1972.

1973-1988. The straight Beswick backstamp. In brown/gold or a mixture. This is the straight Beswick backstamp.
The words Beswick and England are written as shown in either gold or brown (or a mixture).

There are numerous variations on this theme but the basic ruke is that this will date the item between 1973 and 1985. Any marks you come across that are different to the ones I've shown will date the piece as 'later than 1988".


In 1989 the gold backstamp was reinstituted to mark the change from RoyalDounton/Beswick backstamps to Royal Albert. Since then an additional 16 backstamps have been used to bring us right up to date.

So, when Fred rang and said the colour of the backstamp of his rabbit was a sort of browny gold you, hopefully, at last understand why we very rarely give valuations over the phone!!

All in a day's work in the antique shop.

So my advice to collectors is get out there and keep looking and learning. Part of the pleasure for the collector is finding out as much as you can about your chosen area of expertise and most of all
of course "HAVING FUN"

This 'Oval' backstamp dates from
1955 to 1972

This 'Straight' backstamp dates from
1973 to 1988

At last the puzzle is solved!

By simply looking at the bases we can tell instantly which Peter is the "older and more valuable" Sadly the older Peter is the one with the broken ear. So if you were a keen collector and fancied spending a little to have him repaired then the Peter on the left would be the one to go for.

If that is too much of a pain then presumably you would buy the newer "intact" Peter. So back to the original question "Which figure is worth more?" Sorry I can't help . . . . the answer is . . . It's up to you! Happy Collecting.
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