Beswick rides high in the Potteries

Prior to the sale of two record-breaking lots of Beswick at Bonhams’ October 28 sale – a colour trial Galloway Bull (£8800) and the Spirit of Whitfield (£9500) – the auction record for Beswick could well have been the £3500 paid for this rare figure at Potteries Specialist Auctions on October 22.

All of the Beswick Rearing Huntsman series are currently proving very desirable - the first version of the Huntsman on a chestnut mount realised a punchy £800 - but this example is one of only a handful with a Palomino colourway.       

There were more than 150 horse models produced by Beswick - among the best-known being the Shire Horse, model number 818. In a standard colour this can be bought for under £100 but there are 11 tones to choose from including an iron grey Shire sold here at £1500 and one in black made for the Collectors Circle in 1990 sold at £1150.

A Silver Dunn Galloway Bull made £1000 (to be followed by another which made £1200 at Bonhams the following week) while rare in a red jacket, a model of Girl on a Pony sold at £750. Portly Otter from Wind in the Willows fetched £270, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves made £1000 while Tinkerbell from the Peter Pan series had a small nip to her wing but still realised £900.

The buyer's premium at Potteries Specialist Auctions was 15%