Everyone remembers the moment when they first started collecting. For me, it came at the tender age of 8 years old, I remember quite vividly visiting my grandma’s house where the smell of freshly baked bread and ginger biscuits would greet us. I would be straight to the antique sideboard, searching through all the antiques and collectables, checking the marks for porcelain, china and pottery in my handbook.
It was probably this, and the fact that my grandma would be at car boot sales every Sunday, that I soon became the owner of these fascinating pottery miniature animals made by Wade, called Whimsies. Every other week I would be gifted another figurine, and soon I became hooked on collecting them.
It quickly became an obsession, with my mum, building me a cabinet for them to live in and also buying me at the time, the indispensable bible , “ The World Of Wade” by Ian Warmer & Mike Posgay. This book literally went everywhere with me. I would marvel at its contents and spend hours searching high and low in charity shops, car boot sales and antique fairs for my next treasure.
Between 1989-1999, I amassed quite a collection. At the time, Wade was at its height. I had started collecting at a good time, I was buying cheaply and prices were soaring. The popularity of Wade really was quite amazing. For the past twenty years though, its popularity has waned slightly with prices tumbling. However, over the past year, I have noticed a spike again in its popularity. People are collecting Wade again.
I couldn’t do this topic justice in just one article. However, I will do my best to give you a brief history of Wade and focus particularly on Whimsies.
A Brief History
The origins of Wade go as far back as 1810 with a small pottery started up by Henry Hallen, producing bottles, industrial wares and even mixing dishes for the art company Windsor & Newton.
In 1867 the George Wade pottery was formed which bought out the Henry Hallen pottery and continued to make industrial wares including gas burners and electric insulators. In 1919, George Wade & Son Ltd was formed. The firm continued to manufacture industrial wares but also spread out producing tiles and fireplaces. In 1927, a small art department was formed to produce decorative figurines.
Wade continued to build itself from giftware to promotional items. The Wade group of potteries pretty much had most bases covered. When one trend would fall away and another came to the fore, one of its factories would pick up the slack and production.
As a collector, I soon found that there was more to Wade than Whimsies and so my collection also grew. If it was made by Wade and I didn’t have it in my collection, I would buy it.
More recently, Wade has gone through some radical changes with a management buyout, and in 2010, £8 million was spent on a new state of the art factory. At its core, Wade is still producing industrial foodware, homeware and promotional ware, keeping the same quality and standards that they’ve always historically had. You can visit www.wade.co.uk to see more about their history and what they currently have to offer.
Whimsies
The first set of Whimsies was produced between 1953-59. The success of this series of miniature figurines was more or less accidental. Due to the loss at the time of several government contracts, Wade came up with the idea of producing these small pottery animal figurines, famously known as “Whimsies”, to help keep the potteries in production. Production itself was spread between two factories in Manchester & Portadown.
Of the ten sets originally produced, sets 1,3,5,7 & 9 were produced in Manchester with sets 2,4,6,8 & 10 produced in Ireland. Each set had 5 figurines with the exception of set 5 which had only 4 figurines. These sets were housed as boxed sets and also sold individually.
The first run of Whimsies had a total of 44 animal figurines with the emphasis being on design and quality. Obviously, these proved to be very successful over the years and certainly helped the factories through a tough financial period.
Due to this success, in 1971 a second run of figurines was produced which stayed in production until 1984. In this second run there were 12 sets produced with each set containing 5 figurines. These were sold individually boxed or boxed as a set of 5. Although the quality of these sets weren’t as high as the first run, they proved just as successful. There were also many variations in these sets due mainly to different moulds used or indeed, being decorated differently. This second series ceased in 1984 and left a small opening for a further series which was branded as “Whimsie-Land”. These hand decorated models were slightly bigger than their predecessors.
Many of the models used in the second run were also used for promotional lines in the 1970/80s with some new editions. Tom Smith crackers was one promotional line featuring 44 whimsies, including the circus set. Others included the Canadian Red Rose Tea series which featured over 60 whimsies along with the KP friars for KP nuts and a keyring for St Bruno Tobacco. With these promotional lines you do find that the models have plain glazes compared to the second run of Whimsies.
Whimsies were also used on Whimtrays and the name was also associated with Wades Whimsey-On-Why series of small pottery houses and buildings. As you can tell, this was a very successful series for Wade. Today, the modern equivalent of Whimsies are still being produced with there even being a Spongebob Square Pants set!
If you’re interested in the modern day equivalent then you must visit the international wade collectors club at www.wadecollectorsclub.co.uk a great resource for collectors past and present.
My Collection
Whimsies are all that survive of my Wade collection, having sold the large majority several years ago. I have just recently started to collect again and I still get the same buzz now as I did when I was 8 years old when I would spy that rare model! I do have many favourites as you can see from the pictures.
It was probably this, and the fact that my grandma would be at car boot sales every Sunday, that I soon became the owner of these fascinating pottery miniature animals made by Wade, called Whimsies. Every other week I would be gifted another figurine, and soon I became hooked on collecting them.
Between 1989-1999, I amassed quite a collection. At the time, Wade was at its height. I had started collecting at a good time, I was buying cheaply and prices were soaring. The popularity of Wade really was quite amazing. For the past twenty years though, its popularity has waned slightly with prices tumbling. However, over the past year, I have noticed a spike again in its popularity. People are collecting Wade again.
The first set of Whimsies was produced between 1953-59. The success of this series of miniature figurines was more or less accidental. Due to the loss at the time of several government contracts, Wade came up with the idea of producing these small pottery animal figurines, famously known as “Whimsies”, to help keep the potteries in production. Production itself was spread between two factories in Manchester & Portadown.